There is no defense during a grand jury hearing. The prosecutor and police just get to tell whatever story they want.
n 1985, Sol Wachtler, then the chief justice of New York's Supreme Court said, “Any good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.”
If they're unable to get an indictment it's almost certainly because the accused did nothing wrong. Yet they're still holding her in jail anyway.
It's harassment and bullying.
More specifically, it means the prosecution doesn't have a case. The question before a grand jury is whether there's enough evidence to take it to trial. They take the prosecution's claims at face value, and ask if that would be enough for a conviction, assuming there was no dispute over the facts.
There's no defense present, because that's not the question. The grand jury does not weigh evidence or anything; that's for the petit jury. Decisions about admissibility of evidence is for the trial judge.
Grand juries typically indict 95%+ of the cases presented. You need to have a really, really bad case to lose at the grand jury stage.
Some prosecutors purposely flub the grand jury for police brutality cases. Then they can say they tried and it's not their fault they can't prosecute the police.
There is no defense during a grand jury hearing. The prosecutor and police just get to tell whatever story they want.
If they're unable to get an indictment it's almost certainly because the accused did nothing wrong. Yet they're still holding her in jail anyway.
It's harassment and bullying.
More specifically, it means the prosecution doesn't have a case. The question before a grand jury is whether there's enough evidence to take it to trial. They take the prosecution's claims at face value, and ask if that would be enough for a conviction, assuming there was no dispute over the facts.
There's no defense present, because that's not the question. The grand jury does not weigh evidence or anything; that's for the petit jury. Decisions about admissibility of evidence is for the trial judge.
Grand juries typically indict 95%+ of the cases presented. You need to have a really, really bad case to lose at the grand jury stage.
Some prosecutors purposely flub the grand jury for police brutality cases. Then they can say they tried and it's not their fault they can't prosecute the police.