What's a Grand Jury?

[Hayashi]

Was reading some news on the US political scene.
What's a grand jury, & how is ti different from the normal jury that sits in a trial?

[Eagle eye]

Grand jury - A group of about 16-23 people empaneled to hear evidence presented by a prosecutor to determine if there is enough evidence to bring a person to trial for a crime.

Jury - a group of citizens sworn to hear testimony and evidence at a trial and decide if the defendant is guilty or not of committing a crime

[Black Knight]

I'm actually having to sit for petit jury duty (the second part, not the Grand Jury) and Eagle eye is spot on. It's ok and the cases can be ... interesting...each county does theirs a little different. My county has a jury pool that meets four times over a three month period to try cases. We have meeting #1 done and it only took a half a day to try the only case we had.

FYI

BK

[vesselle]

could this be in regards tom delay, who's being indicted and was forced to step down? [img]tongue.gif[/img] latest senate scandal

V***V

[Hayashi]

Yes, as a matter of fact that was what piqued my curiosity.

[Timber Loftis]

Originally posted by Hayashi: Yes, as a matter of fact that was what piqued my curiosity.

Yes, DeLay was indicted by a Grand Jury.

And, as posted already, a Grand Jury is a criminal tribunal that hears ONLY the prosecution's side of a case and decides if there is enough evidence to file a criminal indictment. Usually, a prosecutor has enough evidence to pass Grand Jury indictment, or he doesn't bother to call a Grand Jury.

A Grand Jury does not consider the defense's side of a case, and does not hear from the defense. If the GJ decides to issue an indictment, the case then moves to the felony trial system, where a new jury is selected for trial.