federal.grand.jury

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Note: You can find more information about how grand juries--both

state and federal--conduct themselves in the FAQ section of this

website. Also, if you'd like to read about how Federal Grand Juries

operate, try these two handbooks:

Handbook for Federal Grand Jurors

http://www.nynd.uscourts.gov/juror.htm(requires Adobe Acrobat)

http://www.pawd.uscourts.gov/Public/Jury/fgj.htm

Handbook for Federal Grand Jury Forepersons

http://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/JURY/Grndjury.htm

Federal prosecutorsthis site provides access to every U.S. Attorneys Office in the country. U.S.

Attorneys are federal prosecutors; one is appointed for every federal judicial district in every state.

The site gives you the information you need to contact a U.S. Attorneys Office. http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/offices/index.html

Federal courts links to federal district courts and to the federal circuit courts of appeals (the

district courts are the trial courts, the circuit courts are the intermediate appellate courts and the

Supreme Court is the ultimate appellate court),http://www.uscourts.gov/allinks.html#all

Introduction

Because of the Fifth Amendment, the federal legal system has to use grand juries to bring

charges, at least for certain offenses. The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires that

charges for all capital and "infamous" crimes be brought by an indictment returned by a grandury. The amendment has been interpreted to require that an indictment be used to charge federal

felonies, unless a defendant waives his or her right to be indicted by a grand jury. The Supreme

Court has held that this part of the Fifth Amendment is not binding on the states, so they can use

grand juries or not, as they wish.

(If a defendant waives his or her right to be indicted by a grand jury, the prosecutor can

charge them by using an "information." An information is simply a pleading that accuses the

defendants of committing crimes, just as an indictment does. The difference between an

indictment and an information is that a grand jury must approve an indictment, while a prosecutor

can issue an information without the grand jury's approval or, for that matter, without ever

showing the information to the grand jury.)

Since most federal prosecutions involve felony charges, grand juries play an important role in

enforcing federal criminal law. The sections below describe the essential aspects of federal grand

uries.

Size of the grand jury
http://www.nynd.uscourts.gov/juror.htmhttp://www.nynd.uscourts.gov/juror.htmhttp://www.pawd.uscourts.gov/Public/Jury/fgj.htmhttp://www.pawd.uscourts.gov/Public/Jury/fgj.htmhttp://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/JURY/Grndjury.htmhttp://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/JURY/Grndjury.htmhttp://www.usdoj.gov/usao/offices/index.htmlhttp://www.usdoj.gov/usao/offices/index.htmlhttp://www.uscourts.gov/allinks.html#allhttp://www.uscourts.gov/allinks.html#allhttp://www.uscourts.gov/allinks.html#allhttp://www.uscourts.gov/allinks.html#allhttp://www.usdoj.gov/usao/offices/index.htmlhttp://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/JURY/Grndjury.htmhttp://www.pawd.uscourts.gov/Public/Jury/fgj.htmhttp://www.nynd.uscourts.gov/juror.htm


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Federal grand juries are composed of between 16 and 23 individuals. Sixteen is the minimum

and 23 is the maximum number that can constitute a federal grand jury. The size of the federal

grand jury is set by Rule 6(a)(1) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.

Quorum of jurors needed to conduct business

The quorum is the minimum number of jurors that need to be present for a grand jury to be

able to conduct business, such as considering whether charges should be brought against someone

or investigating criminal activity. No statute or court rule defines the quorum for federal grand

uries, but federal courts have inferred that at least 16 jurors must be present for a grand jury to

convene and conduct business. The number 16 comes from Rule 6(a)(1) of the Federal Rules of

Criminal Procedure, which says that a federal grand jury must consists of between 16 and 23

urors. If less than 16 jurors appear, the grand jury cannot convene.

Alternate and replacement grand jurors

Under Rule 6(a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, a federal court can, but does

not have to, choose alternate grand jurors when it impanels a federal grand jury. If a judge haschosen one or more alternates, they replace jurors who are excused (usually for illness or other

conditions constituting a hardship). If a court has not chosen alternates, it can replace excused

grand jurors by simply choosing other individuals to serve.

Grand jury officers

Under Rule 6 of the Federal Rules of Criminal

Procedure, a federal court must appoint both a

foreperson and a deputy foreperson when it

impanels a grand jury. The foreperson or, in her

absence, the deputy foreperson administers oaths to

witnesses who testify before the grand jury and

presides over the grand jury's sessions, ensuring that

a quorum is present and handling other

administrative matters. In this photograph of a grand

ury in session, you can see the foreperson at the far

right.

The deputy foreperson is the

woman at the far left (in the green

blouse) in this picture.


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The rule does not provide for the appointment of a grand jury secretary, but the custom in

some federal judicial districts is to appoint a grand jury secretary. The secretary records the

attendance of specific jurors and witnesses, and may record the grand jury's vote on indictments

presented to it.

Grand jury room

Since grand jury proceedings are secret, grand

uries meet in private, which means they usually

meet in areas that are not accessible to the public.

Federal grand juries meet in special "grand jury

rooms" that are located in generally out of the

way areas of a federal courthouse. You can see

what a grand jury room looks like if you go to the

"multimedia overview" section of this website.

Gathering evidence

Grand juries use subpoenas to gather the evidence they need to use in deciding whether

crimes have been committed. They can subpoena documents and physical evidence (including

videotapes, guns, etc.) and they can subpoena witnesses to testify. In the picture below, you see a

police officer testifying before a state grand jury:

In the federal system, grand juries

are more likely to hear testimony

from federal agents (FBI, DEA, BATF,

IRS) than from police officers, but they

do

sometim

es hear

from

police

officers,

as

well. They are most likely to hear from police officers when they are

investigating, for example, drug trafficking or corruption in local

government.

In the federal system, witnesses cannot be accompanied into

the grand jury room by their attorney, if they have one. Below, you

can see a grand jury witness (the gentleman) consulting, in the hall


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outside the grand jury room, with his attorney. The witness will then have to go back inside the

grand jury room, and if he wants to consult with his attorney again, will have to ask permission to

go outside and do so.

Since witnesses have not been

indicted, they apparently have no

constitutional right to counsel, since

the Sixth Amendment right to counsel

only applied after someone has been

indicted. If a witness cannot afford an

attorney, he or she can ask the court that supervises the grand jury to provide them with

appointed counsel; in many districts, courts do this, as a matter of general fairness. They mayappoint a private attorney or, if the district has a Federal Public Defender's Office, they will

appoint a public defender.

The witness, however, has to know to ask the court for the attorney, since prosecutors are not

likely to be particularly sympathetic to such requests.

Grand jury's term

Federal grand juries are of two types--regular and special. Regular grand juries sit for a basic

term of 18 months, but that term can be extended up to another 6 months, which means their

total possible term is 24 months. Special grand juries sit for 18 months, but their term can be

extended for up to another 18 months; a court can extend a special grand jury's term for 6

months, and can enter up to three such extensions, totaling 18 months.

How often a grand jury meets

Federal grand juries meet regularly, but the frequency of their meetings varies from one

federal judicial district to another. Several grand juries may be meeting at the same time in large

urban areas, while grand juries

convened in less populous districts may

only meet once a week or once a

month. Generally, federal grand juries

tend to meet when prosecutors needthem to consider proposed indictments

or to investigate possible criminal

activity.

Recording grand jury proceedings

The recording of federal grand jury


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proceedings was not explicitly authorized until Rule 6 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure

was adopted in 1946. It allowed proceedings to be recorded, but did not require that a record be

made. Rule 6 was revised in 1979, and now requires that federal grand jury proceedings be

recorded, either stenographically or electronically. In this photograph, you can see a female court

reporter (sitting beside a male prosecutor) who is recording a grand jury's proceedings.

Prosecutorial Misconduct

Recording was made mandatory as a check on prosecutorial abuse of the grand jury process;

the drafters of the revised rule believed prosecutors would be less likely to engage in misconduct

before a grand jury if they knew a record was being kept of their activities.Click here for more

information on prosecutorial misconduct.

Grand jury functions

Historically, grand juries have performed two functions. They decided whether someone

should be charged--"indicted"--for committing a crime. They also investigated criminal activity and

the conduct of public affairs. Before the American Revolution, colonial grand juries essentially ran

local government, supervising everything from road-building and bridge maintenance to the

operation of local jails. Over the years, they lost much of their public affairs function, as the

operation of local government was taken over by administrative agencies, an institution that did

not exist in colonial times.

In the modern federal system, grand juries do not investigate civil matters. In fact, it is an

abuse of the grand jury process to use a federal grand jury to gather evidence for use in a civil

proceeding. Federal grand juries concentrate on investigating and bringing charges for federal

crimes.

There are two kinds of federal

grand juries: Regular federal

grand juries and special federal

grand juries. Regular federal

grand juries tend to spend their

time hearing evidence and

considering indictments

submitted to them by a

prosecutor. They spend the bulk

of their time deciding, therefore,

whether probable cause exists to

return a set of proposed charges

against the defendants names therein. Special federal grand juries were created in 1970

specifically to investigate organized crime. They, too, consider whether indictments should be
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returned against certain persons, but special grand juries also devote a great deal of their time to

investigating possible criminal activity.

Federal Grand Jury

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