Hello Rambler,
(1)Where the idea of a grand jury first originated. (In the US? In England?)
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?The grand jury system has roots in laws traced from ancient Greece,
through the Norman system, the Magna Carta and early American and
California judicial systems. The United States Constitution
specifically refers to a grand jury. The Alameda County civil grand
jury is comprised of citizens who act as officers of the Court and are
responsible to citizens of Alameda County.?
http://www.acgov.org/grandjury/
?Enshrined in the 5th Amendment to the United States Constitution and
used in over half of state courts, the grand jury is still one of the
most mysterious and misunderstood institutions in the American legal
system. What is its purpose? How does it work and what does it do? Is
it a protection or a danger to liberty?
This section of "The American Jury" provides resources and classroom
strategies for examining the origins, powers, and purposes of the
grand jury. It also includes activities and resources about certain
concerns that have arisen in the work of both state and federal grand
juries.?
http://www.crfc.org/americanjury/grand.html
?The tradition of trial by jury in this country is older than the
Republic itself, having arisen from traditions that were rooted in
English life by the thirteenth century. How did the jury come about?
For what purposes was it designed, and what ends did it end up
serving?
This section of "The American Jury" provides resources and classroom
strategies for examining the origins, powers, and purposes of the jury
as it developed in England. It also includes activities and resources
that allow students to compare the jury system with other legal
systems designed to reach fair, workable, and acceptable verdicts in
criminal and civil cases.?
http://www.crfc.org/americanjury/origins.html
The history of the grand jury is rooted in the common and civil law,
extending back to Athens, pre-Norman England, and the Assize of
Clarendon promulgated by Henry II. 1 The right seems to have been
first mentioned in the colonies in the Charter of Liberties and
Privileges of 1683, which was passed by the first assembly permitted
to be elected in the colony of New York. 2 Included from the first in
Madison's introduced draft of the Bill of Rights, the provision
elicited no recorded debate and no opposition. ''The grand jury is an
English institution, brought to this country by the early colonists
and incorporated in the Constitution by the Founders. There is every
reason to believe that our constitutional grand jury was intended to
operate substantially like its English progenitor.
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment05/01.html
(2) How it has evolved over the years.
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BEHIND THE LOCKED DOOR OF AN AMERICAN GRAND JURY: ITS HISTORY, ITS
SECRECY, AND ITS PROCESS
http://www.law.fsu.edu/journals/lawreview/frames/241/kadifram.html#txttop
Grand Jury Reform
http://www.constitution.org/jury/gj/gj-us.htm
http://www.constitution.org/jury/jury.htm
(3) Is it defined in the Constitution, or in legislation, or just tradition?
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The Grand Jury: The Cornerstone of the Constitution
?The grand jury is the cornerstone of the Constitution. When it
operates as it was designed by the Framers of the Constitution, the
Bill of Rights cannot be infringed by the government. When it is a
rubber stamp for the prosecutor, the Bill of Rights are seriously
undermined. By educating those called to be grand jurors we can begin
to reclaim those rights eviscerated by the federal judiciary.?(The
first link does not work)
http://home.earthlink.net/~dlaw70/cornerstone.htm
?The jury trial was a significant expression of "the consent of the
governed" in American history. Among the reasons given by the signers
of the Declaration of Independence to "dissolve the Political Bonds"
which connected them to Great Britain was the deprivation "of the
Benefits of Trial by Jury." Trial by jury in criminal cases was
incorporated into the Constitution itself, and the grand jury, the
criminal petit jury, and the civil petit jury all were enumerated in
the Bill of Rights.
This section of "The American Jury" provides resources and classroom
strategies for exploring how the jury system worked and was understood
in Pre-Revolutionary America and in the early history of the United
States. It also includes an activity and resources that focus on how
significant early Americans considered both civil and criminal trial
procedures.?
http://www.crfc.org/americanjury/formation.html
(4) What rights a witness has or doesn't have when being questioned.
(e.g. can you "plead the 5th"?)
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?No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise
infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury,
except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the
Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor
shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in
jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case
to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be
taken for public use, without just compensation.?
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment05/
?The key words in the amendment are: "nor shall be compelled, in any
criminal case, to be a witness against himself." This basically means
you don't have to incriminate yourself, and you can't be forced to
testify at your own criminal trial. When you "plead the Fifth," the
prosecuting attorney is not allowed to suggest to the jury that your
lack of testimony implies your guilt. However, members of the jury may
come to that conclusion on their own. In addition, if you are
testifying in someone else's trial and feel that you might incriminate
yourself in the process, you can avoid answering questions by
"pleading the Fifth."
Avoiding self-incrimination is the main reason people invoke the Fifth
Amendment, but there is another reason it's used: it also includes the
double-jeopardy provision. This basically means you cannot be put on
trial twice for the same crime, even if more evidence comes to light.?
http://ask.yahoo.com/20020304.html
(5) Are there grand juries at both the federal and state levels?
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?There are two kinds of federal grand juries: Regular federal grand
juries and special federal grand juries. Regular federal grand
juries tend to spend their time hearing evidence and considering
indictments submitted to them by a prosecutor. They spend the bulk of
their time deciding, therefore, whether probable cause exists to
return a set of proposed charges against the defendants names therein.
Special federal grand juries were created in 1970 specifically to
investigate organized crime. They, too, consider whether indictments
should be returned against certain persons, but special grand juries
also devote a great deal of their time to investigating possible
criminal activity.?
http://www.udayton.edu/~grandjur/fedj/fedj.htm#Grand%20jury%20functions
Federal Grand Juries
http://www.udayton.edu/~grandjur/fedj/fedj.htm
Some state Grand Juries
http://www.constitution.org/jury/gj/state_grand_jury.htm
http://www.udayton.edu/~grandjur/links/state.htm
(6) What is the format of a grand jury?
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http://www.abanet.org/media/faqjury.html
Additional Information
======================
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_jury
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/guidelines/4371.htm
There you go! Please request an Answer Clarification, before rating,
if any part of my answer is unclear.
Regards, Crabcakes
Search Terms
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pleading the fifth amendment
State Grand Juries
Federal Grand juries
History + grand jury
Grand jury reform |
