Riots and protests broke out during July and
August 2014 over the killings of Eric Garner
and Michael Brown.
2.
Then, in late November and early December,
a grand jury decided not to criminally charge
the police officers who were responsible for
the two deaths and protests erupted again.
So, what are grand juries and how important
are they?
Well, a grand jury is like a test-run for
the prosecution
It’ a way for the prosecution to see if
there’s enough evidence to pursue criminal
charges, like murder.
A grand jury differs from a trial jury mainly
because it’s entirely run by the prosecution
and it is just determining whether or not
criminal charges should be levied.
There is also no judge and no defense attorney.
The prosecutor basically just throws all possible
evidence, witness accounts, and even hearsay
testimony at a jury -- to see if, in the right
conditions, a jury might decide there was
probable cause.
The jury usually numbers between 16 and 23
people called at random just like criminal
juries.
Although a grand jury’s decision is independent
of a trial jury’s verdict, it’s often
a good indicator of the direction that the
official trial will take.
In this case, the prosecutor found that there
was not enough evidence to bring these cases
to trial even though Garner’s case was officially
ruled a homicide and both men were unarmed.
These decisions are also controversial because
grand juries usually choose to indict.
Reports have said that 99 percent of all cases
that go before a federal grand jury end with
the the prosecution taking the case to criminal
trial and so do a majority of state grand
juries 3.
There’s a famous quote from Sol Wachtler,
a former chief judge of New York, that grand
juries will “indict a ham sandwich” if
the prosecution wants them to.
However - the statistics also show that grand
juries rarely indict a police officer.4
An investigation by the Houston Chronicle
found that “police have been nearly immune
from criminal charges in shootings” in large
cities.
For example, grand juries in Dallas, Texas,
reviewed 81 officer-related-shootings between
2008 and 2012, and indicted only one person.
Grand juries can be useful.
If they choose to indict, a judge will see
that there’s enough evidence to move forward,
and a trial will be expedited
The problem here is that most grand juries
involving police action chose not to indict
and the victims of that police action have
no one fighting for them in front of the grand
jury, because the state and not the victim
chooses the prosecutor.
For more on the US Court system, check out
our video on the Bias of the Supreme Court.
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