the.com/grand jury
The jury that doesn't decide if you're guilty, just if you're accusable.
means A panel of citizens that reviews evidence in secret to decide whether there's enough cause to formally charge someone with a crime, not whether they did it.
from From 'grand' meaning larger, going back to Anglo-Norman French 'graunt' (great/large), distinguishing this bigger body of jurors — historically up to 23 — from the smaller trial ('petit' or 'petty') jury of 12. The institution traces to medieval England, where royal justices used local panels to investigate crimes and accusations before trial, a practice English colonists carried to America, where it survives robustly even though Britain itself largely abolished grand juries in the 1930s.
- origin
- English common law, over 700 years old
- secrecy
- Proceedings sealed, even from your lawyer
- odds
- Prosecutors win indictments over 99 percent of time
- quote
- Could indict a ham sandwich, judge once joked