Gregory Hurley
In the federal system, regular grand juries hear evidence and consider indictments submitted by a federal prosecutor to determine whether probable cause to charge the defendant exists, while special grand juries perform an investigatory function in federal criminal cases. Within the state system, grand juries are used in varying degrees and functions; while the scope of activities usually includes criminal indictments and investigations, other roles include investigating public officials and public buildings or examining larger crime problems. The existence of grand juries remains controversial, as many feel they are no longer necessary in today’s justice system.
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This article discusses Impaneling multiple juries in civil suits may serve as an appropriate, innovative strategy to overcome insurmountable evidentiary problems when there are multiple defendants with somewhat conflicting interests.
This article discusses the American jury system as it relates to peremptory challenges, challenges for cause, vicinage, jury instructions, nullification, and many other topics of interest.
So far as the common law principles relating to the grand jury are in force in the various states, the law and the decisions thereon are generally uniform. This essay discusses the law in relation to grand juries among the different states.
This article advocates a bold reformation of Rules 6 and 7 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure so that prosecutors would be barred from participating in grand jury investigations except when expressly invited by a grand jury to do so. This proposal would be most consistent with grand jury practices of the Founding period and the original intent behind the Fifth Amendment’s Grand Jury Clause.
This Article seeks to take the grand jury on the offensive. Instead of merely proposing ways to enhance the grand jury’s performance of traditional roles, or defending it against calls for its elimination, this Article sketches a blueprint for the grand jury’s functional makeover.