State v. Newkirk

The Fourteenth Amendment right to due process was not intended to encompass the same right to a grand jury encompassed by the Fifth Amendment. Hurtado v. California, 110 US 516, (1884).

Defendant was convicted with an upward departure of 90 months because trial court found four sentence enhancement factors. Defendant contended that these factors were not approved by grand jury in violation of Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause and the Grand Jury Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment right to due process was not intended to encompass the same right to a grand jury encompassed by the Fifth Amendment. Hurtado v. California, 110 US 516, (1884). Defendant argued that in light of several cases, the U.S. Supreme Court seems to have abandoned the approach taken in Hurtado. The Court reasoned that it is not in a position to set out on its own legal path. The Supreme Court has yet to overrule precedent cases. The Court said lower courts must follow controlling case law even if it appears to rest on reasons rejected in other lines of decisions. Affirmed.