Re: Are Grand Juries Fair
Sounds to me like a homework assignment. If so, why don't you tell us what you think the answers are and we can give you feedback?
Re: Are Grand Juries Fair
It’s not a homework assignment, just a curiosity. I have no legal affiliation professionally or academically. I ask based on personal experience with a system that uses exclusively prosecutorial discretion, and there were several times where I thought (and also my lawyer) the decisions to charge against me or an adversary were completely biased, influenced, or political and not based on the facts and evidence of the cases themselves. They ultimately played out in court like that too, repeatedly with non convictions or dismissals. I have been charged with over a dozen felonies across several cases, but all I have is a single misdemeanor harassment conviction from one of the cases. And I’m wondering if perhaps a grand jury had been used instead, maybe all that time, expense, and heartache wouldn’t have been necessary. From the responses, looks like that might not be the case, though.
Re: Are Grand Juries Fair
We've had some pretty bad grand juries in the news recently. They found one that had been clearing something like 180 cases an hour. Just ain't no way they gave any consideration, just held up their hand when the case was called and moved on to the next one.
Re: Are Grand Juries Fair
Have you ever served on a grand jury? There is no way that a jury could rule on a 180 cases an hour. That is 3 cases per minute. What are you talking about?
Re: Are Grand Juries Fair
Apparently flyingron is referring to a case that was publicized in his area or elsewhere that illustrates the potential inattentiveness of a Grand Jury by highlighting one that cleared an absurd number of cases, clearly devoting no time at all to consideration. The point being that grand juries can be fair or unfair, and they vary a great deal by state and jurisdiction.
Re: Are Grand Juries Fair
Quote:
Quoting
budwad
Have you ever served on a grand jury? There is no way that a jury could rule on a 180 cases an hour. That is 3 cases per minute. What are you talking about?
I haven't, but my boss was. But believe me, this was an actual case. A bunch of defense lawyers have brought a suit to disqualify all these indictments. I tried to google up the details, but alas, all the recent Catholic priest improprieties has swamped any attempt to find it.
Re: Are Grand Juries Fair
Is this the article you are referring to?
I have had 2 experiences with a grand jury. I served on a county jury for I don't remember how many weeks (a long time) back in the 1980's and I had to appear as a witness before another.
Serving on the jury was definitely an eye-opening experience. On the one hand, the grand jury was used to punish (indicts) some for political reasons and on the other hand, to exonerate those that have committed crimes (the police for example). And then there are routine cases where a person has committed a crime and we handed up the bill to indict.
The case we heard to punish (referred to above) was about a guy who was indicted for check fraud. I voted no bill but the prosecutor got the votes. This guy, on a Friday after work, bought a TV and wrote a check for the purchase. He knew that he did not have the funds to cover the purchase in his checking account but he intended to deposit his paycheck on his way home. He didn't make it to the bank in time. The bank was closed. The check bounced before he could deposit his paycheck and have the funds cleared.
After hearing the facts from the prosecutor and being instructed on the law and hearing that the prosecutor wanted an indictment, the jury handed up the bill. Technically speaking, writing a check when you know you don't have the funds in the account is check fraud. But where was the intent to defraud or to commit a crime. The guy made good on the check and yet has to stand trial.
The other case was to indict two police officers that brutally beat an underage teenager for being on the street after a probation curfew. We heard testimony over several weeks. The evidence was pretty heavy against them. They did beat this kid bloody, they did not notify his parents that he was in jail for over 24 hours, and they throw away all his bloody clothing . But the prosecutor downplayed the evidence and in the end, the jury voted no bill because the prosecutor made it clear that he did not want the bill.
The people that serve on these grand juries are ordinary people that don't know much about the law. They don't think for themselves and go with the what the prosecutor wants. Hence, you can indict a ham sandwich.