Q: What is a “grand jury?”
A: Before I went to law school, I often wondered what was so “grand” about a jury anyway. The talking heads on TV often said smart things about, “the grand jury did this” or “he was brought before the grand jury.” It all sounded so secretive, so filled with intrigue. It really irked me that I did not know the first ting about the grand jury.
In law school, I finally got to peak behind the veil of secrecy that is the grand jury. You know what I saw? I learned that a grand jury is a really big jury. Hardly the stirring answer I wager you expected.
Okay, that is only part of the answer. It is true that a grand jury is bigger than a petit jury by at least four people. A grand jury, in West Virginia, is made up of sixteen persons, whereas a petit jury – the typical jury that you normally think of – consists of six (for civil trials) or twelve (for criminal trials) persons. In some U.S. jurisdictions, grand juries can be made up of as many as twenty-three persons.
But size is not all that matters when it comes to defining a grand jury. Function is of prime importance. A grand jury decides whether the facts of a given situation are sufficient to issue an indictment and, in so doing, begin the criminal trial process. Prosecutors spend hours presenting the grand jury with facts and law in an attempt to demonstrate why so-and-so should be tried for such-and-such crime. If at least twelve of the grand jurors agree that there exists probable cause that a person should be tried for the crime charged, an indictment is issued and the criminal process begins.
Grand juries are required before any American can be tried for the commission of a felony. That is a guarantee secured for us by the Bill of Rights of both the U.S. Constitution (Amendment 5) and the Constitution of West Virginia (Article III, Section 4). Why is a grand jury among the foundational rights of the American system of governance?
To answer that, we must go back to the year 1215 and a field called Runnymede when King John signed the Magna Carta guaranteeing the first grand jury. Up to that point, if the King charged someone with a crime – justly or not – the person stood charged and, often, summarily tried, convicted, and sentenced. The grand jury interposed an objective and independent group of peers into the process. They effectively required the sovereign to give good evidence and just cause before someone was sent to trial. Our founding fathers noted that this idea was in keeping with the core principles of freedom and fairness and adopted the concept, as now embodied in the Fith Amendment.
Today, the U.S. is one of the only countries to still use the grand jury system. Other countries have similar procedures in place to make sure the government does not unjustly try innocents for crimes they did not commit, but few are like the grand jury system we employ. And, of course, some countries are still ruled by the whim and fancy of the despot.
Without such a stopgap, a government’s reach could do silently what its citizenry would never permit it to do, if done publicly. The grand jury, therefore, is yet one more hallmark of freedom in the governance of, by, and for the people.
Copyright: Jeremiah G. Dys, 2007. May not be used absent the express, written permission of the author. For permission to reprint, please contact the author.
A: Before I went to law school, I often wondered what was so “grand” about a jury anyway. The talking heads on TV often said smart things about, “the grand jury did this” or “he was brought before the grand jury.” It all sounded so secretive, so filled with intrigue. It really irked me that I did not know the first ting about the grand jury.
In law school, I finally got to peak behind the veil of secrecy that is the grand jury. You know what I saw? I learned that a grand jury is a really big jury. Hardly the stirring answer I wager you expected.
Okay, that is only part of the answer. It is true that a grand jury is bigger than a petit jury by at least four people. A grand jury, in West Virginia, is made up of sixteen persons, whereas a petit jury – the typical jury that you normally think of – consists of six (for civil trials) or twelve (for criminal trials) persons. In some U.S. jurisdictions, grand juries can be made up of as many as twenty-three persons.
But size is not all that matters when it comes to defining a grand jury. Function is of prime importance. A grand jury decides whether the facts of a given situation are sufficient to issue an indictment and, in so doing, begin the criminal trial process. Prosecutors spend hours presenting the grand jury with facts and law in an attempt to demonstrate why so-and-so should be tried for such-and-such crime. If at least twelve of the grand jurors agree that there exists probable cause that a person should be tried for the crime charged, an indictment is issued and the criminal process begins.
Grand juries are required before any American can be tried for the commission of a felony. That is a guarantee secured for us by the Bill of Rights of both the U.S. Constitution (Amendment 5) and the Constitution of West Virginia (Article III, Section 4). Why is a grand jury among the foundational rights of the American system of governance?
To answer that, we must go back to the year 1215 and a field called Runnymede when King John signed the Magna Carta guaranteeing the first grand jury. Up to that point, if the King charged someone with a crime – justly or not – the person stood charged and, often, summarily tried, convicted, and sentenced. The grand jury interposed an objective and independent group of peers into the process. They effectively required the sovereign to give good evidence and just cause before someone was sent to trial. Our founding fathers noted that this idea was in keeping with the core principles of freedom and fairness and adopted the concept, as now embodied in the Fith Amendment.
Today, the U.S. is one of the only countries to still use the grand jury system. Other countries have similar procedures in place to make sure the government does not unjustly try innocents for crimes they did not commit, but few are like the grand jury system we employ. And, of course, some countries are still ruled by the whim and fancy of the despot.
Without such a stopgap, a government’s reach could do silently what its citizenry would never permit it to do, if done publicly. The grand jury, therefore, is yet one more hallmark of freedom in the governance of, by, and for the people.
Copyright: Jeremiah G. Dys, 2007. May not be used absent the express, written permission of the author. For permission to reprint, please contact the author.
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