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[15] [16] A grand jury is instructed to return an indictment if the probable cause standard has been met. The grand jury's decision is either a "true bill" (formerly billa vera, resulting in an indictment), or "no true bill".
The grand jury (from the French word grand meaning "large") is so named because traditionally it has more jurors than a trial jury, sometimes called a petty or petit jury (from the French word petit meaning "small"). [4] A grand jury in the United States usually has 16 to 23 members, though in Virginia it has fewer members for regular or ...
If they accept a proposed indictment, the grand jury's action is known as a "true bill." Grand jury proceedings are ex parte: only the prosecutor and witnesses who the prosecutor calls may present evidence to the grand jury and defendants are not allowed to present mitigating evidence or even to know the testimony that was presented to the ...
The Grand Jury Clause limits governmental powers focusing on criminal procedures, because, as stated by the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Cotton (2002), "the Fifth Amendment grand jury right serves a vital function in providing for a body of citizens that acts as a check on prosecutorial power. No doubt that is true.
Title I—Special Grand Jury. This title authorizes special grand juries to convene as ordered by the Attorney General for periods of up to 36 months. These special grand juries convened under the oversight of a federal district court to return indictments and issue grand jury reports concerning governmental misconduct, legislative or executive ...
The bill and the release of the grand jury documents is an extremely important step, he said. The grand jury itself is rarely used in a case like this, Reiter noted.
The grand jury proceedings in Palm Beach County represent the start of how the politically-connected Epstein sex-trafficked young girls while using money and connections to shield himself from ...
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. It has not been textually assigned, therefore, to any of the branches described in the first three Articles.