Grand Jury
The Constitution for the United States of America dictates in the
5th Amendment that: "No person shall be held to answer for a
capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or
indictment of a Grand Jury.."
See
CopperCards
County Cleanup Program
The primary purpose of a Grand Jury is to prevent malicious
prosecution by the government. The Constitution, which forms
the highest and overriding Law of the Land, mandates in no uncertain
terms that you may not be prosecuted for a crime without an
indictment of a Grand Jury.
A Grand Jury is formed from average citizens in a community to
determine if a crime has been committed in their district and to
determine if there is sufficient probable cause to indict a individual
for the crime.
In other words, the purpose of the
Grand Jury is to find probable cause to charge someone with a crime.
NOTE: You have a 5th Amendment right to insist on an indictment
by a Grand Jury before you can be charged or tried for a crime. In other
words, the public prosecutors must first get you publicly indicted by
a grand jury before they can prosecute you.
Consequentially, the Grand Jury is not something managed or
controlled by the government. District Attorneys, Prosecutors,
Judges, Lawyers, or any officers of the court or any government
officials have no place or function in Grand Juries.
The Grand Jury is a body of laymen, free from
technical rules, acting if necessary in secret, pledged to indict no one because of
prejudice, and to free no one because of special favor.
"Despite the vast power of grand juries, there is little in the
way of judicial or legislative response designed to impose some
supervisory restrictions on them." - FindLaw.com on Indictment by
Grand Jury
Grand Juries belong exclusively to "We the People" they are free of
any control of the government or court. Anyone can call and
form a Grand Jury by simply randomly selecting 23 citizens from the
community where a crime took place. Jurors on Grand Juries are
not managed by any judge, they are free to conduct their own
investigations and to gather their own evidence.
Victims, who are the 'Real Parties of Interest' can bring cases
before Grand Juries or they can ask a Public Prosecutor / District
Attorney to bring the case before the Grand Jury on their behalf.
Pubic Prosecutors however do not have any authority to bring cases
against anyone on their own behalf without a written and verified
criminal complaint made by a victim. Ordinary citizens can
themselves prosecute cases by assuming the position of a 'Private
Attorney General' in a legal process known as
Quo
Warranto.
The Grand Jury conducts their own hearings
and investigations as they feel fit. Grand Juries can issue subpoenas to
summon witnesses to testify before them. People who refuse Grand
Jury summons face Contempt of Court charges. A Grand Jury is not a
criminal trial, it only establishes if there is probable cause to bring
someone to a criminal trial. Unlike criminal trials, people called
to testify before a Grand Jury do not have a right to remain silent,
they can however negotiate immunity with the prosecutor for their
testimony. When calling a witness, the Grand Jury need not reveal
to the witness the nature of their investigation. There are no
rules barring evidence from a Grand Jury. Grand Jury proceedings
are separate and independent from the criminal trial, you cannot record
Grand Jury proceedings or use a recording of the Grand Jury proceedings
in a trial.
Other than basically unacceptable conduct, there are no limitations
placed on how Grand Jurors conduct their investigations. Grand Jury
Juror's
can conduct their investigations in secret so as to not tip off a
criminal regarding a pending indictment.
Grand Jurors can be held accountable for libel and slander or for
acting maliciously, so they
must act truthfully and responsibly. Multiple grand juries can conduct
investigations simultaneously, and witnesses cannot object if they are
called to testify by more than one grand jury.
The Structure of a Grand Jury
The Grand Jury is generally composed of 24 people
including a foreman, at least
sixteen jurors must be present for a grand jury to conduct business and
at least 12 of the grand jurors must agree that sufficient evidence
exists for an indictment. Federal courts use 23 local citizens on
grand juries which can operate with 16 members present of which only 12
jurors are need to issue an indictment/presentment. State grand
juries vary in number from between 5 to 23 local citizens.
To form a Grand Jury one only needs to randomly select 24
individuals from your County.
An Indictment is when the Grand Jury Foreman calls for a vote to
determine if more than 12 jurors find probable cause for indictment,
the Foreman signs the complaint. In a Presentment, each juror
who finds probable cause signs the complaint.
Every citizen has an obligation, which may be onerous at times, to
appear and give whatever aid he may to a Grand Jury.
On indictment/presentment buy a Grand Jury, the Public Prosecutor /
District Attorney must prosecute the case and bring the accused to
trial, alternatively the victim who represents the real party of
interests may utilize a process known as
Quo
Warranto to prosecute the case themselves.
A Cornerstone to Criminal Prosecution
The Grand Jury process is a cornerstone to criminal prosecution
within the U.S.
By 1215 the jury concept was guaranteed through the Magna Carta
stating that no freeman would be "imprisoned or [dispossessed] or exiled
or in any way destroyed . . . except by the lawful judgment of his
peers." The
Grand Jury system originated in twelfth-century England, when King Henry
II enacted the Assize of Clarendon to circumvent local noble's and
Catholic Church control of the courts. As dictated by the 5th
Amendment, in England a Grand Assize/Jury consisting of a certain number
of locals determined if sufficient evidence of the commission of a crime
existed before anyone could be accused of a crime.
In 1635, the Massachusetts Bay Colony impaneled one of the first
grand juries consider the legitimacy of cases in the U.S. By 1683, all
the States had some form of Grand Jury process. In 1765, for
example, a Boston grand jury refused to indict patriots protesting
against the Stamp Act. The 5th Amendment dictating the necessity
of a Grand Jury Indictment/Presentment before anyone can be prosecuted
for a crime was enacted as part of the original Bill of Rights proposed
on September 25th, 1789 and ratified on December 15th, 1791. In a 1906
Supreme Court Case, [Hale v. Henkel, 201 U.S. 43 (1906)],
the Supreme Court recognized that the Grand Jury function is to “stand
between the prosecutor and the accused,” and to determine whether a
charge is legitimate, or is “dictated by malice or personal ill will”.
In another Supreme Court Case, [United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338
(1974)], the Supreme Court stated that the
independent grand jury’s purpose is not only to investigate possible
criminal conduct, but to act as a “protector of citizens against
arbitrary and oppressive governmental action,” - The U.S. Attorneys Manual states that
prosecutors “must recognize that the grand jury is an independent body,
whose functions include not only the investigation of crime and the
initiation of criminal prosecution but also the protection of the
citizenry from unfounded criminal charges” (USAM, Section 9-11.010). The
Manual recognizes that targets of investigations have the right and can
“request or demand the opportunity to tell the grand jury their side of
the story” (USAM, Section 9-11.152).
Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution clearly
states "The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment,
shall
be by Jury". Judges have no authority to try criminal cases.
All the State Courts are subject to the Constitution as the highest law
of the land and they have no authority to ignore the Constitution.
Many State Superior Courts, in blatant violation of the 5th Amendment,
allow District Attorneys to make up laundry lists of charges and to file these charges
against victims without any Grand Jury indictment or presentment (See
CopperCards
Arraignment). Judges step in where they have no authority, and
claim the right to conduct 'evidentiary hearings' in place of the Grand
Jury.
The DA's, lawyers and judges typically utilize this
malicious prosecution of a massive laundry list of charges to black mail their victims into a 'Plea
Bargain'. In a Plea Bargain, the accused is offered a shorter
sentence if they pleading guilty or 'no-contest' to some of the charges
on condition that the DA drop other charges.
Bargain with public prosecutor: "Certain agreements
between a public prosecutor and a prospective defendant are in
flagrant violation of the interests of justice and therefore highly
improper. Thus, it is improper for a prosecutor to promise an
accused, in return for a confession of guilt regarding a particular
crime, immunity from prosecution for other crimes that he may have
committed." People v Groves, 63 CA 709, 219 P 1033 (Sec. 2297 Cal
Jur.) See CopperCards
Plea Bargain Buster
After obtaining a guilty or no-contest plea from the accused, the
Courts, in blatant violation of Article III, Sec 2, allow the judges to
try the criminal case and sentence the accused without a Trial by Jury.
This enables the establishment of the Prison Industrial Complex and the
incarceration of millions of innocent citizens. Judges, DA's,
lawyers, police and private jails cash in on the feeding frenzy creating
jobs and income for themselves by violating the core construct of
Constitutional law. Prisons and Jails run at minus five star
quality and charge the public five star rates for incarcerating the
innocent. As a consequence of these blatant violations of the Constitution, the
U.S. today has more people in jail, prison and on probation than all the
other nations in the world combined! See
also
Historical
Perspective
The Supreme Court in the Wood v. Georgia case (370 U.S. 375 (1962)),
stated that the grand jury is to protect citizens against “hasty,
malicious and oppressive persecution” and to insure that prosecutions
are not “dictated by an intimidating power or by malice and personal ill
will”. The Grand Jury process can however save America.
We the people form Grand Juries, they are not managed by the Courts or
the Judiciary. One simply randomly calls 24 people together from
the community where the crime was committed. You can form a Grand
Jury today and present before that Grand Jury evidence of crimes
committed by government officials. On obtaining an indictment or
presentiment from the Grand Jury you can become a Personal Attorney
General and prosecute the official yourself! See
CopperCards
County Cleanup Program
Some References:
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