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Thread: Impressions of my first week serving on a Grand Jury
This is the first time I've ever been asked or selected to serve on a Grand Jury. After my first week I have heard evidence in around 10 cases total.
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This is the first time I've ever been asked or selected to serve on a Grand Jury. After my first week I have heard evidence in around 10 cases total.
1/7
As a reminder, a grand jury simply decides if there is enough evidence presented by the Assistant DA to justify an indictment. The threshold is much lower than an actual trail juror, who decides if a case meets a beyond a reasonable doubt standard.
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In the grand jury, you don't see or hear from the accused, and there is no judge present. The assigned assistant DA (ADA) simply presents a broad overview of the facts of the case, brings in witnesses to tesify, and sometimes certain evidentiary documents like photos.
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3/7
There is no one representing a defense to challenge the evidence, although we on the Grand Jury can ask questions of the witnesses and ask questions on the evidence and testimony presented, within reason.
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The ADA rarely presents their full case to the Grand Jury. There is simply not enough time, and in a lot of cases the investigations are still ongoing. They present just enough to try and secure an indictment.
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5/7
Serving on a county grand jury is eye-opening. All cases are felonies, and are typically things like theft, assault, sex crimes, animal abuse, and unfortunately due to COVID an increasing amount of domestic violence cases. More often than not, DV cases involve a lot of alcohol.
Another heartbreaking fact is that quite a few DV situations happen in front of children. The responding officers provide the bulk of grand jury testimony. It's eye opening how much DV calls they go on. Overal they do a great job in these situations and have specialized training
Witness testimony by the victim and others in the household tends to be inconsistent due to the frenzy & alcohol. So a lot of the case have to rely on physical evidence like bruising and injuries.
Hearing from child witnesses is the worst, as these poor kids are traumatized already and then have to testify against one of their parents.
Lastly, there is always one of your fellow grand jurors who is a pain in the ass and has decided they are Perry Mason. In the case of my grand jury, there is a guy in his early 30's who always has to challenge the witness with ridiculous questions that aren't relevant,
or simply asks the witnesses to restate what they have already said in testimony. He especially does this to police witnesses. He drives the rest of us and the ADA's crazy. He gets lots of "dafuq?" looks and I want to strangle him. /end.
