On August 11^th, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill barring grand juries from deciding on charges in cases involving police use of lethal force.  The thinking behind the bill was that grad juries are often “shrouded in scerecy” and enable prosecutors to escape accountability to the public. The supporters of this bill included many police brutality opponents and racial equality advocates

The bill, named SB 227 was authored by State Sen. Holly Mitchell, a Democrat from Los Angeles, partly as a reaction to grand juries in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City deciding not indict to police in the killings last year of unarmed black men Michael Brown, 18, and Eric Garner, 43. In both cases, the decisions sparked public outcry from Black Lives Matter and other activists across the country.

“Criminal grand jury proceedings differ from traditional trials in a variety of ways; they are not adversarial. No judges or defense attorneys participate,” Mitchell said in a statement. “There are no cross-examinations of witnesses, and there are no objections. How prosecutors explain the law to the jurors and what prosecutors say about the evidence are subject to no oversight. And the proceedings are shrouded in secrecy.”

The measure was opposed by law enforcement groups, including the California Association of District Attorneys, which argued that the grand jury system is a useful prosecutorial tool, according to The Los Angeles Times.

When cases arise like the killings of Brown and Garner arise, prosecutors can choose to convene a preliminary hearing or convene a grand jury to decide on indictment, according to a bill analysis conducted by state Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley.

In such cases, facing pressure from law enforcement not to file charges and pressure from the community to file, convening a grand jury allows the prosecutor to “pass the buck, using grand jurors as pawns for political cover,” Hancock said.

Another bill signed into law Tuesday, SB 411, reaffirms the right of civilians to record a police officer in a public space, The Sacramento Bee reported.