General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAs Few as 4 Grand Jurors Can Scuttle an Indictment
12 grand jurors, nine of whom must agree
on whether a crime was committed and
whether there is probable cause to believe
the defendant committed it.
http://ago.mo.gov/publications/courtprocess.pdf
So it's possible that 8 of them wanted to return a true bill? No wonder reporters at McCulloch's soiree kept asking for the jury count. And no wonder that's the shred of secrecy he's still affording to the proceeding.
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Four Grand Jurors can stop a True Bill from being returned, and then no trial follows. One juror can hang a jury, but this commonly results in a retrial.
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)If a prosecutor doesn't want a True Bill out of a Grand Jury, he be able to avoid a Guilty verdict on that case even more easily.
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)When the DA thought a case was iffy they presented to the GC much like this one was, laying it all out. They figured if just laying out everything they knew, with no defense attorneys, couldn't get a simple indictment than a conviction was pretty well impossible.
Rose Siding
(32,623 posts)give a long and meandering press conference criticizing some grand jury witnesses and supporting others?
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)So I don't think its comperable.
But I rember at least one self defense case where the DA took it in front of the GC and there was a no-bill and he did speak to the local paper at length about it. Not a cop, actually a Hispanic immigrant who killed a white redneck in self defense. Lots of local screaming about an illegal (he wasn't undocumented but that didn't matter to the racists) killing a citizen, but once it was all said and done he explained to the paper why it was no billed and why the GC was right.
KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)Logical
(22,457 posts)bettyellen
(47,209 posts)leakiest GJ ever- and then they blame the media. What bullshit.
mainstreetonce
(4,178 posts)That is one of my problems. Someone leaked details constantly through the process.
That is against the law and could have nullified the GJ. I believe the police did it.