Grand Jury Research Paper

However, the jury system is still very important to the justice system. The role of the jury in NSW A jury is a group of people from the community with all sorts of backgrounds, beliefs, religions, education levels and ages, who listens to the evidence of the cases and helps the court to decide the outcome of the cases. Jury duty in NSW is a very important responsibility, providing a link between the justice system and the community.

In America’s justice system, a grand jury is a group of citizens called to decide whether probable cause exists to believe that a suspect committed the crime with which she or he has been charged (Gaines G-4). In the Central District of California, prospective jurors who report and are not excused or postponed, the Jury Clerk will use a computer program to randomly select 23 members and ten alternates for each grand jury. A grand jury designated “investigatory” meet for a 12-month term, while a grand jury designated “accusatory” meets for a 6-month term. A grand jury has 23 members and meets once a week, always on the same weekday. Grand juries do not meet on weekends or Mondays. The average workday is 5 hours. Absences for medical appointments, vacations, graduations, etc. may be accommodated, but 16 members must be present for the grand jury to conduct business. The grand jury serves the United States District Court, Central District of California. In contrast, a trial jury is asked to reach a verdict based on the evidence presented during a civil or criminal trial; a grand jury meets in secret to consider whether there is sufficient evidence to justify a formal criminal charge against someone. That formal criminal charge is called an “indictment” (Central).

What is the difference between a “petit” and a “grand” jury? Petit juries have 12 members who decide, based on evidence, if the defendant is guilty or not guilty. Grand juries indict people. Its functions is to decide if the government has a case or not. How are they chosen? Through a jury pool from those serving jury duty. What are their respective functions? To decide if the government has a case, and to decide if the defendant is guilty or not guilty. Also if a person has won or lost a lawsuit.

In his article, published in one of the most widely read legal publications worldwide, Robert G. Johnston addresses the dissatisfaction with the Grand Jury. He elaborates on the reasons of this dissatisfaction with the Grand Jury, how the courts reacted to this retrogression and like Anna Offit’s article, gives suggestions on how to best improve people’s view on the Grand Jury and why a jury can be of use to the courts.

A jury is a person who is un-qualified and not paid who is selected at random to participate in the court hearing. To be

Rule Six of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure governs federal grand jury proceedings. Rule Six provides that the federal grand jury must consist of 16 to 23 members and that 12 members must concur in order for an indictment to be issued. The federal grand jury is instructed to return an indictment (true bill) if probable cause standard has been met or no true bill if probable cause standards have not been met (Fed. R. Crim. P. 6).

Every day people are convicted of crimes or arrested for other reasons. Once they are convicted they are summoned to court, this begins the jury process. Citizens are randomly chosen to serve on jury duty. The citizens on the jury will use the jury system to determine if the person being accused is guilty or innocent. Trials can become very long or they can be short it just depends on the topic and how long it takes to decide on what the consequences will be. The jury system is the main trial and the main decision of whether or not someone is right or wrong.

In fact, according to http://www.ducksters.com/ “A trial by jury is when a number of people hear the case and decide together if the defendant is guilty. The amendment doesn't say exactly how many people need to be on a jury. The Supreme Court, however, has said that there needs to be at least six people on a jury. Most juries today in the United States have twelve members.” This means that the jury is just a bunch of random people that have heard about the case that hear what he has to say and decide if he’s guilty.

Often, forty or fifty people will be summoned for a 12 person jury. The process of selecting who will make up the jury is called voir dire, which involves getting rid of potential jurors who would not be fair or impartial. Prosecutors and defense attorneys can strike for cause a potential juror for several reasons, such as bias or prejudice, an unlimited number of times. They also have a limited number of peremptory challenges, which allows them to get rid of a juror without needing to have a valid reason to do so. Once all challenges the attorneys can utilize have been exhausted, the judge will assemble the petit jury and will generally select alternate jurors as

The responsibility of the jury in criminal and civil cases is to “determine questions of fact” and apply law as set out by the judge and then, with these facts and evidence, come up with a verdict.

Also prior to the trial, a jury of 6 to 12 people must be selected. Each jury member must go through a screening process to ensure that they have no connection to the trial, or any preconceived opinion of it that could keep them from being impartial to either side. A juror can be removed if they have any connection to the trial, and the defense

The above statement tells that no one can be put on trial for a serious crime, unless a grand jury decide first that there is enough proof or evidence, if there is enough evidence produced then an indictment is issued, which means that the person who is charged with the crime will be put on trial for the crime.

A Grand Jury consists of 12 to 23 members and since it was derived from common-law, Grand Jury clause is interpreted from common-law itself. Grand Juries giving indictment in any kind of criminal cases formed with a jury of peers and its proceedings are operated in private and closed environment. These Juries are also provided specific instructions regarding any kind of law by the judge. The Grand Juries have other rights like many constitutional restriction and constraints which apply in a court, do not apply during grand jury proceedings. Exclusionary rule is an example which does not apply when specific evidences are presented to a grand jury.

First, we are going to discuss the grand jury. This process is probably the most commonly known. It can be seen in shows like Law and Order and CSI when it comes to charging people with a felony. By definition, a grand jury is “a panel of persons chosen through strict court procedures to review criminal investigations and… to conduct criminal investigations” (Garland, N. 2012, 21p). This

The current jury system is based on an almost millennium-old principle found in the Magna Carta (1215). As a result of changes in society since, the system must be seen as potentially outdated. In other words, it may not satisfy the needs of modern society, judged by what the major stakeholders of the criminal justice system expect. Indeed, there are substantial flaws in current jury systems in terms of effectiveness. The two major concerns with jury systems are their representativeness and their levels of competence. The representativeness of juries is essential as their reason for existing is to represent the views of society. Having twelve jurors could be understood to ensure representativeness and eliminate room for bias. However, this does not remove the possibility of juries being biased towards parties. Even if the potential jurors contacted are representative in terms of gender, ethnicity, age and socioeconomic status and though jury duty is a compulsory engagement, 90% of Queenslanders opt out of it. This makes it very likely that juries will not be representative. One example is ethnic diversity. There is likely to be less ethnic diversity in courts because ethnic minorities might not have sufficient language ability or access to interpreters to be jurors. Another example is age. It is likely that retired people