Criminal-Defense Articles > Behind the Grand Jury

Behind the Grand Jury

Even to those folks who are regular watchers of crime shows on the television, the grand jury remains somewhat of an elusive mystery to most people. A typical TV viewer and movie goer oftentimes watches a district attorney or prosecutor rant and rave about taking a case to a grand jury.

As a bit of background, a grand jury is constituted in much the same way a petit or trial jury is assembled. Grand jurors are called to service randomly exactly like those men and women who sit on a trial or "regular" jury.

As a matter of course and practice, more people actually serve as jurors on a grand jury than sit on a jury for a normal criminal trial.

A grand jury meets in secret. The members of the grand jury are not revealed to the public while the jury is sitting.

A prosecutor presents his or her case to the grand jury in order to see if probable cause exists that a crime has been committed and that a certain committed the alleged crime. The prosecutor does not present all of the case in his possession to a grand jury. A prosecutor does not want to reveal his full hand at such an early juncture in the case. Therefore, he or she makes a bare bones presentation to the grand jury. He or she presents just enough information to demonstrate probable cause.

Probably cause is not a difficult burden for a prosecutor to meet. It is a far, far cry from the standard needed to convict, which is beyond reasonable doubt. (Some lawyers and judges have long maintained that a ham sandwich could end up being indicted by a grand jury. By that it is meant that it takes very, very little to develop enough of a bare bones cast to indict a person by grand jury.)

During the grand jury proceedings, the prosecutor will present some of his witnesses and some of his evidence to support the allegations made in the criminal complaint.

A criminal defendant, of course, has every right to attend a grand jury. But, he or she is not entitled to present any specific evidence on his or her own behalf. Additionally and unique in our judicial is the fact that a lawyer cannot speak on behalf of a criminal defendant during grand jury proceedings. In short, a lawyer is on hand for a grand jurt setting more for mal support than an thing else.

A grand jury, when it is done with its business on a given case, presents what is normally known as a sealed indictment. Within the sealed indictment is contained the specific charges that the grand jurors have deemed necessary to be brought against a criminal defendant based on the evidence presented to the grand jury during its proceedings.

The sealed indictment is conveyed to a judge who will then order a criminal defendant to appear in court. At this juncture, the criminal defendant will be brought before a judge and advised of the charges and of his rights.

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