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  1. #1

    Default Are Grand Juries Fair

    My question involves criminal law for the state of:MI

    Are grand juries fairer or less biased with less chance for corruption or ulterior influences than full prosecutorial discretion when it comes to filing charges? Why do some states/counties go one way and others the other way? Is it a political issue or does it have to do with throughput speed or somerhing else?

  2. #2
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    Sep 2005
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    Default Re: Are

    Grand Juries and their effectiveness and use vary by state. For instance, in CA a Grand Jury is rarely ever utilized for criminal indictments, but in some other states it can be the chief method of indictment - at least for more serious offenses. Also, out here, they are chiefly used to look into matters of interest within the county where they are empaneled. These can include matters of public interest - possibly corruption - or simply the efficiency of a governmental body. In my state they are not all that pervasive or effective.

    I suspect that you will find that their effectiveness, bias, etc. will vary greatly by state and jurisdiction. There is no easy way to ascribe the nebulous concept of "fairness" to any particular grand jury process, much less to grand juries in general. But, for criminal matters you have to consider that a Grand Jury generally only hears that info which the prosecutor wants it to hear; hence the saying that through a grand jury a prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich.

    A summary of some of the powers of the Grand Jury in various locales and jurisdictions can be found here:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_..._United_States

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Are

    Quote Quoting zags4champs
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    My question involves criminal law for the state of:MI

    Are grand juries fairer or less biased with less chance for corruption or ulterior influences than full prosecutorial discretion when it comes to filing charges? Why do some states/counties go one way and others the other way? Is it a political issue or does it have to do with throughput speed or somerhing else?
    In theory grand juries are supposed to be a check against government overreach by requiring the jury to settle on the charges that will be brought rather than the prosecutor. And in some cases that in fact does work out that way. But quite often the prosecutors are quite skilled in convincing the jury to indict on the charges sought, so it ends up not presenting much of a barrier for the prosecutor. You may have heard the expression that a prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwhich. That gives a sense of just how often the prosectors get what they seek. In the federal system the Constitution requires grand juries for most felony cases. Often the grand jury ends up being a help for the government, the chief benefit being that the grand jury gives the prosecutors additional tools to use in investigating the case and bringing pressure to bear on potential defendants.

    But in terms of bias, there are no studies I know of that clearly show grand juries are more or less biased than the prosecutor, and I suspect that there is likely no real consistent pattern in that regard either way.

  4. #4
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    Default 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?

  5. #5

    Default 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.

  6. #6
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    Default 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.

  7. #7
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    Nov 2013
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    Default 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?

  8. #8
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    California
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    Default 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.

  9. #9
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    Default Re: Are Grand Juries Fair

    Quote Quoting budwad
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    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.

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