Up until now, every time I’ve gotten notice about possible jury duty, I’ve been passed over. In NY, at least in my county, they have had a fairly sweet setup for decades. In the early days you’d receive a card in the mail with two numbers on it, one was your juror number, the other a phone number. You’d call the phone number on Sunday evening and listen to hear if your juror number was among those being called. For example, if your number was 190, the prerecorded message might be something like, “Jurors numbered 1 through 85 are required to report to the courthouse at 9:00 AM. Jurors 86-150 have to call back Monday night for further instructors. If your number is 151 or higher, your services are not required and you are excused for the next 6 years from jury duty.”
Up until this time, my number was always high enough I never had to report. But this time it was different. It was also for grand jury duty. And, being 2023, this time I could call in or check a webpage. I even received a text message the day of, to remind me to check. Sure enough, I was instructed to report Wednesday morning at 9:00 AM to the county courthouse.
This was the first time I had been inside and it was as I expected, lots of oak woodwork and portraits of judges overlooking the courtroom. And of course, uncomfortable chairs and benches to sit in.
After waiting what seemed like an interminable amount of time things finally started moving. We had to watch a video about implicit bias and how we should try to avoid it. Then the judge came in and gave us instructions. She then asked everyone who thought they met the criteria for excusal to form a line and she’d speak to them. I didn’t meet any of the criteria, and honestly, I was a bit curious about being on a jury, and I feel that it’s an important part of our civic duty to try to serve when called, so I sat, and admittedly fell asleep during this time.
Finally the excusals were done and 23 of the remaining 60-80 folks waited to be selected via lottery. For our grand jury there are 23 members, 16 of which constitutes a quorum and 12 required to move forward on a vote (so a majority if all 23 show up.) I was I think, probably about 18th to be selected.
After one final question regarding anyone being unable to serve and one woman being excused and replaced, we were given final instructions. Among these was the selection of a jury foreperson. Some poor fool volunteered for that role. So now I have to swear in each witness and when it comes time, take the votes on indictments report them to the judge.
A little aside: for those not familiar with what a grand jury and what it does, a little background. When post people think of a jury, they’re thinking of what’s known as a petit (small) jury or a trial jury. In the US, this typically composed of 12 jurors and usually all 12 are required for a verdict. This is what you see on most criminal tv shows and what Perry Mason was always able to (except once) convince of his client’s non-guilt. From talking to friends here in NY, those who have served on such have often served for a case lasting 1-2 days. It’s not a lot of commitment and as I said above, I think it’s a critical part of our duties in our civil system.
A grand jury is a bit different. In this case, only the prosecution is present and the goal is simply to determine if there’s enough evidence to go to trial. For example, a prosecutor might think that John Smith is guilty of robbing a grocery store. Before this can go to trial, the prosecutor has to convince at least 12 jurors (out of the 23) that she has enough evidence that a petit jury would likely find Mr. Smith guilty. Say, the prosecution has a video tape of John going into the grocery store at the time the crime took place, video of him inside the store holding a gun, and then video of him leaving with bags of goods. It’s very likely the grand jury would move forward with an indictment. The case would then go to trial. At the trial the defense can then present their evidence and argument.
But let’s say the prosecutor simply says, “well I know John is a criminal and two days later he deposited $500 dollars in his account, and we think that came from the robbery.” Well the grand jury probably wouldn’t be convinced and vote against moving forward with an indictment.
Also, during a grand jury, the jury can and in fact is expected to ask questions. This may be done to clarify a point or to try to get more information to help us make a more informed decision. And in fact, if we think there should be additional charges, we can recommend those to the prosecutor.
Anyway, back to my grand jury. I can’t speak of any details for a variety of reasons. Among them, simply saying, “Oh yeah, I was on a grand jury looking at if John Smith robbed a store” would be unfair to Mr. Smith. People might stop associating with him even if it’s determined there was no evidence supporting the claim. And of course if I said something during the grand jury proceedings and Mr. Smith IS in fact guilty, he might flee the area to avoid arrest.
All I can say in my case (and the Assistant Attorney General has clearly stated we can say this) is that my service is required 3 days a week, most likely for a minimum of 4 more weeks. In theory I’m supposed to be available until December 30th and if necessary they could even extend that. But, all expectations are that we’ll be done in the 4 weeks.
What I can add is that most if not all of us are taking our responsibilities quite seriously. After the first witness for one case (grand juries may or may not sit for multiple cases) was called, I had some questions I wanted to ask, but didn’t want to be the first person to ask a question. Fortunately someone else was willing to be the first and asked their questions. Then I asked mine. And from then on we were off to the races.
So far, out of the 23 of us, I’d say maybe 6 of us are the most likely to ask questions. The prosecutor has the legal right to deny an answer however, or to reword it. For example if a juror simply wanted to ask “Witness Pimba, what’s your favorite color?” That would be denied. It’s not a fact related to the case.
The prosecutor might reword the question in order to better meet certain legal requirements. “Witness Pimba, can you clarify what the speed limit was in that location?” The prosecutor might turn that into two questions, “Witness Pimba, what is the speed limit in that location and how are you aware of it.” This might be phrased this way in order to introduce into the record that the witness saw the speed limit sign there, or that that’s some statutory reason for their knowledge.
This relates to one of the details I find very interesting and that’s how evidence and testimony is introduced into the record. Sometimes there are a bunch of questions that seem trivial or irrelevant, but are there in order to form the building blocks to a bigger question, to set the foundation as you will. This means if there’s 3 similar charges, say on check fraud, the witness might be asked the same or similar question 3 times, one for each charge. For example, “When you received the check from Stacy Fromme, how did you handle it as evidence?” Since each charge is separate, the question has to be asked for each, otherwise subsequent questions couldn’t be introduced into the record. Even if the same procedure was done every single time, the question has to be asked each time.
Right now we’re in the listening and questioning phase. The only folks allowed in the room are us, the prosecutor, the witness, a translator if necessary, and the court reporter. The judge can be called upon to clarify a particular aspect of a law, but otherwise is not there. Technically there’s no defendant because they haven’t been charged yet. And of course because there’s no defendant, there is no defense lawyer. Even if a janitor walks in by mistake to empty the trash, all proceedings stop. Again the idea is to ensure the confidentiality of the proceedings.
So, for now, 3 days a week, I sit in a closed room listening to testimony and examining evidence. At one or more points, even the prosecutor and court reporter will leave the room and we’ll deliberate and votes on charges.
So, in the meantime, life is Grand… jury.
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