Grand Jury : History and Functions

A grand jury is responsible for determining whether there are sufficient grounds for accusing an individual or an organization of criminal charges on the basis of the furnished evidence. The sessions of the grand jury take place in a separate room, and they are meant to be confidential. No one else, except the members, is allowed access.

The grand jury is comprised of 23 members that include government lawyers, witnesses, interpreters, and court reporters, who are all under a pledge.

History of the Grand Jury

The creation of the grand jury goes back a long way, as early as 1215, when it was first decreed by King John.It was even authorized by the Magna Carta. With the coming of the English to America, many of their legal concepts were also made a part of the American legal system, and the concept of grand jury was one of them.

Functions of the Grand Jury

As far as the functions of the federal grand jury are concerned, they are quite different from that of the petit jury or the federal trial jury. The task of the grand jury is to determine whether a sufficient cause exists behind a crime and the person committing it. If the grand jury arrives at the conclusion of an existence of a cause, then it issues an indictment which is, in fact, a written statement of the charges. Following the indictment, the individual is then subjected to a trial.

The grand jury makes a decision based on the evidence furnished by the government attorney. It is either the assistant United States attorney of the federal district or the United States attorney. The issues may be brought to the knowledge of the grand jury either by the court that impaneled it, by the information available to a member of the jury or by a government attorney.

After the evidence is made available to the jury, the jury decides whether it is sufficient to issue an indictment. In the case that the evidence is insufficient, the grand jury has the power to issue a “no bill” in which case there is no need for a trial.

Election of the Grand Jury

A grand jury is chosen from people belonging to different strata of the community,in a division or a district in which the former is convened. According to the law of the land, the names of people are selected randomly from the list of actual or registered voters.This is done in a bid to make sure that there is fair representation. Of the people who are selected, the ones who are not exempted from service are called to serve as grand jurors. The presiding judge then selects 23 eligible people to be a part of the grand jury.

As per the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, charges pertaining to infamous crimes that fall under federal jurisdiction are subject to review by the grand jury. The states, however, may not choose to appoint a grand jury as had been stated by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Some of the counties in states such as Minnesota, California, Oregon, Massachusetts, and Nevada have a grand jury.