There’s been a lot of news about grand juries over the past few months, specifically because of Donald Trump’s indictments. Whether or not you’re a Trump supporter or hater, we should understand what a grand jury is, how it works, and how it differs from a regular (not-so-grand?) jury.
Let’s start with what we know and see on television and in movies…a trial jury. Typically this is shown as twelve people, sitting in a jury box in the courtroom, listening to testimony about what the defendant may or may not have done. At the end, the jury is led away to a jury room to determine guilt or innocence of the defendant. Now, a jury doesn’t have to be twelve people. It can be fewer. But for serious crimes…felonies…it’s always twelve. If a case is high profile or the court proceedings are expected to last a long time, there may also be alternate jurors. These are people who listen to all the evidence, but don’t get to rule on guilt or innocence. If for some reason, a jury member cannot continue, they are replaced by one of the alternates. One thing to note is that the jury cannot question a witness or ask questions to the lawyers.
The jury can be select a couple of different ways that vary by state. Typically, names are randomly selected from either driver license records or voting rolls. The person is then put into the “jury pool” and if called to serve they are asked questions by the judge and the attorneys in the case. Any of those law professionals can disqualify a prospective juror based on the answers given.
Members of a grand jury are selected pretty much the same way except there is no judge and no defense attorney. It’s all handled by the prosecuting attorney. This person is generally a district attorney, a federal attorney, or one of their assistants. In some jurisdictions, there is no DA, but a case is handled by an attorney representing the government. In the New York case against Donald Trump is was a district attorney because the charges are state charges, meaning he is accused of violating state law. In the Mar-a-Lago documents case, it was a US Attorney (federal) because he is accused of violating federal law. I will use the term DA or district attorney here.
The DA will present evidence of a possible crime to the grand jury. This can be physical evidence or statements from witnesses. The jury members can ask questions about the evidence and question the witness. Neither the person accused of the crime nor their attorney appear before the grand jury except under very special conditions and even then, the DA must approve of the accused and their lawyers appearing. At the end, the DA will ask the grand jury to determine if the evidence is sufficient enough to file charges against the accused. If so, and indictment is handed down. This document explains the charges being filed. At this point, the regular court system takes over and unless a plea deal is reached, at some point the trial begins and a regular jury is called to render judgement.
A grand jury may be called when the charges are serious. Homicide is one example. But even then, a grand jury is not always used. I can’t remember a single instance of a DA in Utah calling a grand jury.
