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A grand jury investigating the Arcadia Hotel fire in Boston, Massachusetts in December 1913. Grand juries in the United States are groups of citizens empowered by United States federal or state law to conduct legal proceedings, chiefly investigating potential criminal conduct and determining whether criminal charges should be brought. [1]
A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand jury is separate from the courts, which do not preside over its functioning. [1] Originating in England during the Middle Ages, [2] modern examples include grand juries in the United States, and to a lesser extent, Liberia and Japan. [3]
A citizen's right to a trial by jury is a central feature of the United States Constitution. [1] It is considered a fundamental principle of the American legal system. Laws and regulations governing jury selection and conviction/acquittal requirements vary from state to state (and are not available in courts of American Samoa), but the fundamental right itself is mentioned five times in the ...
Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion in United States v. Williams, 1992 has been relied on to refer to grand juries as a fourth branch of government. In that opinion, Scalia wrote: [T]he grand jury is mentioned in the Bill of Rights, but not in the body of the Constitution.
During voir dire, potential jurors are questioned by attorneys and the judge.It has been argued that voir dire is often ineffective at detecting juror bias. [1] Research shows that biographic information in minimal voir dire is not useful for identifying juror bias or predicting verdicts, while attitudinal questions in expanded voir dire can root out bias and predict case outcomes. [2]
The United States Jury Selection and Service Act of 1968, or "Jury Act", 28 U.S.C. § 1861 et seq, provides the judicial structure for the selection of United States federal juries. The Jury Act provides: [1] It is the policy of the United States that all litigants in Federal courts entitled to trial by jury shall have the right to grand and ...
Pennsylvania government agencies systematically failed to oversee the oil and gas fracking industry and protect residents from the inherent risks of industry operations, according to the findings ...
In United States v. Williams (1992), where the Court rejected a rule that would have required "substantial exculpatory evidence" to be presented to the grand jury, the defendant did not even argue a Fifth Amendment violation. [27] The lack of a grand jury does not deprive the court of jurisdiction, and the defendant may waive the grand jury ...