Q. Is the NH indictment and arrest warrant process outdated?

A. Yes. Trump's indictment is a failure of the indictment system that NH also suffers from. After practicing law for over 15 years, I know how screwed up the laws in NH are.

My name is Rich Clark. In 2022, I ran for the Rockingham County Attorney position as a Democrat. My number one priority and campaign position was trying to educate Granite Staters that NH's indictment process was centuries outdated, lacked transparency, accountability, and allowed unethical county attorneys to prosecute the innocent. Imagine if a NH District Court determined probable cause was insufficient to issue an arrest warrant, then a NH County Attorney can turn around and sign an indictment for the same thing. Our Rockingham County Attorney Pat Conway will sign an indictment when a District Court judge refuses to issue an arrest warrant. Conway's actions injure the innocent, that we allow by our outdated laws. Is this corruption, archaic laws, unfairness, or lack of transparency? In NH, County Attorneys can knowingly hide material facts hurting their case from the Grand Jury that could cause an indictment to not be issued.

NH County Attorneys have no requirement to provide the Grand Jury exculpatory information- information that helps the person being accused of a crime. In NH, if an arrest warrant is denied a law enforcement officer often goes to the next Justice of the Peace until it's issued with no requirement to notice the next Justice of the Peace it's before them because it was denied earlier.

In February 2023, Joshua Yokela sponsored our Bill we worked on requiring exculpatory evidence to be presented to Grand Jurors.

NH indictment laws are terribly outdated, unfair, unethical and lack transparency. It will only stop when people act for indictment reform by contacting Sununu, State Reps and Senators.

Rich Clark, Esquire

Portsmouth, New Hampshire