Hot! Grand Jury

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A grand jury is a type of indictment will be issued. Currently, only the common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of . In , they also functioned as local government authorities.

A grand jury is so named because it has a greater number of jurors than a trial jury (also known as a petit jury, from the for small).

By jurisdiction Australia

In Australia, the State of maintained, until 2009, provisions for a grand jury in the Crimes Act 1958 under section 354 Indictments, which had been used on rare occasions by individuals to bring other persons to court seeking them to be committed for trial on indictable offenses.

Canada

Grand juries were once common across Canada and old courthouses with the two jury boxes necessary to accommodate the 24 jurors of a grand jury can still be seen. The grand jury would evaluate charges and return what was called a "true bill" if the charges were to proceed. The practice gradually disappeared in Canada over the course of the twentieth century, ultimately being abolished in 1984 when the Nova Scotia courts formally ended the practice.

England

The first instance of a grand jury can be traced back to the Assize of Clarendon , an 1166 act of Henry II of England . In fact, Henry's chief effect on the development of the English monarchy was to increase the jurisdiction of the royal courts at the expense of the feudal courts. Itinerant justices on regular circuits were sent out once each year to enforce the "King's Peace". To make this system of royal criminal justice more effective, Henry employed the method of inquest used by Domesday Book . In each shire a body of important men was sworn (jur ) to report to the sheriff all crimes committed since the last session of the circuit court. Thus originated the modern grand jury that presents information for an indictment. The grand jury was later recognized by King John in Magna Carta in 1215 on demand of the nobility.

England abandoned grand juries in 1933 and instead uses a committal procedure .

Ireland

In Lordship of Ireland in parts of the island under the control of the English government - county level, as well as having a pre-trial judicial function for serious criminal cases. Members were the local payers of , who selected new members. They were usually wealthy "country gentlemen" (i.e. landowners, farmers and merchants):

From 1691 to 1793, Dissenters and County Councils by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 .

New Zealand

New Zealand abolished the grand jury in 1961.

United States

In the early decades of the general power of attorney to represent the state in the case. The grand jury served to screen out incompetent or malicious prosecutions. The advent of official public prosecutors in the later decades of the 19th century largely displaced private prosecutions.

While all states in the U.S. currently have provisions for Grand Juries, today approximately half of the states employ them and only twenty-two require their use, to varying extents.

See also

Inquests in England and Wales

Committal procedure

Immunity from prosecution

Counties of Ireland

References

Phillips Cables Ltd. v. United Steelworkers of America, Local 7276 (Nicolosi grievance), O.L.A.A. No. 13, at para. 15.

^ . . 2006-07-18. Retrieved 2010-10-17.

Medieval Sourcebook: Assize of Clarendon 1166

McDowell, R. B (1975). T.W. Moody, J.C. Beckett, J.V. Kelleher. ed. . Retrieved 2011-09-03.

Chandler, J. A (1993). J. A. Chandler. ed. .

Edwards, George John (1906). Richard H. Ward. ed. . Retrieved 22 May 2011.

If It's Not a Runaway, It's Not a Real Grand Jury , Roger Roots, Creighton L.R., Vol. 33, No. 4, 1999-2000, 821

Brenner, Susan; Lori Shaw (2003). . School of Law. Retrieved 2010-08-02.

American Bar Association . Retrieved 2011-05-119.

Brenner, Susan; Lori Shaw (2003). . School of Law. Retrieved 2007-03-29.

American Bar Association

, a website from a professor at the

More on Grand Jury reform , from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

How Federal Grand Juries Work NPR. Accessed 2008-09-06.

Gottlieb, Bruce (5 August 1998). . Slate (magazine).

from the

, Hugh Turley, Hyattsville Life and Times, January, 2007

Grand juror handbooks from the court system

PDF )

Handbook for Hennepin County (Minnesota) Grand Jurors (PDF )

Illinois