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A grand jury is a type of Common Law Jury responsible for investigating alleged Crime s, examining Evidence , and issuing Indictments if they believe that there is enough evidence for a trial to proceed. A grand jury is distinguished from a Petit Jury , which is used during trial; the names refer to their respective sizes (typically 25 and 12 members respectively). The first grand jury was held in England in 1166 . GENERALLY Where they exist, grand juries are part of the system of or Probable Cause to believe that a crime has been committed. To this end, Witness es can be compelled to testify before them. Unlike the trial itself, the grand jury's proceedings are secret; the Defendant and his or her Counsel are generally not present for other witnesses' testimony. The grand jury's decision is either "true bill" (i.e. there is a case to answer) or "no true bill." In general, jurors are drawn from the same pool of citizens as a petit jury, and participate for a specific time period. The United Kingdom abandoned grand juries in the 1930s and instead uses a Committal Procedure , as do the States of Australia . Today fewer than half of the states in the U.S. employ them. Most jurisdictions have abolished grand juries, replacing them with the Preliminary Hearing at which a Judge hears evidence concerning the alleged offenses and makes a decision on whether the prosecution can proceed. However, grand juries are still used in a number of U.S. jurisdictions. THE UNITED STATES Federal Grand Juries Charges involving "capital or infamous crimes" under Federal Jurisdiction must be presented to a grand jury, under the Fifth Amendment To The United States Constitution . This has been interpreted to permit bypass of the grand jury for Misdemeanor offenses, which can be charged by prosecutor's information. State Grand Juries Unlike many other provisions of the Bill Of Rights , the Supreme Court has ruled that this requirement does not pertain to the State courts via the Fourteenth Amendment , and states are therefore allowed not to use grand juries. CRITICISM OF THE GRAND JURY Some argue that the grand jury is Unjust as the defendant is not represented by Counsel and/or does not have the right to call witnesses. Intended to serve as a check on prosecutors, the opportunity it presents them to compel testimony can in fact prove useful in building up the case they will present at the final trial. In practice, a grand jury rarely acts in a manner contrary to the wishes of the prosecutor. Judge Sol Wachtler , the former Chief Judge of New York State , was quoted as saying, "A grand jury would indict a ham sandwich." As such, many jurisdictions in the United States have replaced the formality of a grand jury with a procedure in which the prosecutor can issue charges by filing an ''information'' (also known as an ''accusation'') which is followed by a preliminary hearing before a Judge at which both the Defendant and his or her counsel are present. New York State itself has changed procedures that define how grand juries are formed to no longer require jurors to have former jury experience. In some rare instances, the grand jury does break with the prosecutor. It can even exclude the prosecutor from its meetings and subpoena witnesses and issue indictments on its own. This is called a "runaway grand jury." Runaway grand juries sometimes happen in government corruption or organized crime cases, if the grand jury comes to believe that the prosecutor himself has been improperly influenced. They were common in the 19th century but have become rare since the 1930s. {Link without Title} In all U.S. jurisdictions retaining the grand jury, the defendant has the right under the Fifth Amendment not to give self-incriminating testimony. However, the prosecutor can call the defendant to testify and require the defendant to assert the right on a question-by-question basis, which is prohibited in jury trials unless the defendant has voluntarily testified on his own behalf. Other evidentiary rules applicable to trials (such as the Hearsay rule) are generally not applicable to grand jury proceedings. SEE ALSO
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