Riots and protests broke out during July and August 2014 over the killings of Eric Garner
and Michael Brown.
2.
Then, in late November and early December, a grand jury decided not to criminally charge
the police officers who were responsible for the two deaths and protests erupted again.
So, what are grand juries and how important are they?
Well, a grand jury is like a test-run for the prosecution
It’ a way for the prosecution to see if there’s enough evidence to pursue criminal
charges, like murder.
A grand jury differs from a trial jury mainly because it’s entirely run by the prosecution
and it is just determining whether or not criminal charges should be levied.
There is also no judge and no defense attorney.
The prosecutor basically just throws all possible evidence, witness accounts, and even hearsay
testimony at a jury -- to see if, in the right conditions, a jury might decide there was
probable cause.
The jury usually numbers between 16 and 23 people called at random just like criminal
juries.
Although a grand jury’s decision is independent of a trial jury’s verdict, it’s often
a good indicator of the direction that the official trial will take.
In this case, the prosecutor found that there was not enough evidence to bring these cases
to trial even though Garner’s case was officially ruled a homicide and both men were unarmed.
These decisions are also controversial because grand juries usually choose to indict.
Reports have said that 99 percent of all cases that go before a federal grand jury end with
the the prosecution taking the case to criminal trial and so do a majority of state grand
juries 3.
There’s a famous quote from Sol Wachtler, a former chief judge of New York, that grand
juries will “indict a ham sandwich” if the prosecution wants them to.
However - the statistics also show that grand juries rarely indict a police officer.4
An investigation by the Houston Chronicle found that “police have been nearly immune
from criminal charges in shootings” in large cities.
For example, grand juries in Dallas, Texas, reviewed 81 officer-related-shootings between
2008 and 2012, and indicted only one person.
Grand juries can be useful.
If they choose to indict, a judge will see that there’s enough evidence to move forward,
and a trial will be expedited
The problem here is that most grand juries involving police action chose not to indict
and the victims of that police action have no one fighting for them in front of the grand
jury, because the state and not the victim chooses the prosecutor.
For more on the US Court system, check out our video on the Bias of the Supreme Court.
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