Grand Jury

Grand Jury

Introduction

The grand jury is the precursor of the petit jury. The grand jury decides whether there are reasonable grounds for committing the accused for trial. The criteria for selection of members of grand juries were identical to those governing small juries (Beale et, al, 2001). The grand jury is composed of 12 to 23 people jury (as opposed to the petit jury, which consists of only 12 people, and only in subsequent litigation occurs) that the prosecutor is convened. It decides whether a crime has been committed, and determines whether the evidence is sufficient and charges to be levied against certain suspects. Grand juries exist today only in the United States, and then only at the federal level and in less than half of all states. In the UK they were in 1933, abolished in New Zealand in 1961, and in Canada in the 1970s.

Functions of Grand Jury

Grand juries serve as part of the checks and balances to the fact that criminal proceedings not only occur due to unchecked indictment by the prosecutor about. As an impartial group of laymen to decide whether there is sufficient evidence that a crime was committed (Beale et, al, 2001). Grand juries have the right to summon witnesses for that purpose alone. In contrast to ordinary proceedings Grand juries meet in camera and, neither the alleged perpetrator nor his legal representation present during the testimony of other witnesses. Begin with a conceptualization of the "Grand Jury" by way of introduction in the proposition. I will make a brief overview of the historical origin of this institute, history and ancient powers. In the common law, the form of citizen participation, is represented in a process of trial by jury. This is called the classical system.

The grand jury is a panel of citizens convened for that purpose and, the function is basically to give approval or not to charge, and thus allow for trial therefore; it is distinguished Jury Trial or petit jury in that, on the contrary, and this film functions to judge the case once raised by the Grand Jury. Despite its clear distinction as to their powers, they share the characteristic of being formed by laymen, and be clear accusatory institutions. There are two types of grand jury, which can be classified as Ordinary and Special (Beale et, al, 2001). The common feature is essential in each case the powers vested in issuing accusations.

Historical background and powers

The origins of the jury and therefore; the grand jury, date back to the time of the Normans. They introduced the pollsters and the neighborhood assemblies, which were the predecessors of this institute in the twelfth and thirteenth century (Beale et, al, 2001). The role was to make a generic interrogation, but this was not to find out if this or that person was innocent or guilty of a particular offense, if that were required someone to find out about the crimes committed in the neighborhood. A regular grand jury has a term of ...