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Grand Jury's Role In The Criminal Justice System

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The grand jury is an institution that has long played a vital role in criminal justice systems, specifically as it relates to the indictment and prosecution of alleged criminals. The grand jury originated in 1166, with the enactment of the Assize Clarendon, by King Henry II of Britain (McSweeney, 2014). The Assize Clarendon, mandated that a “jury of twelve good and lawful men”, be periodically convened, to investigate and inform the king’s justices; whether they had knowledge of or suspected community members of having committed a crime (Segal, Spivack, & Costilo, 1996). Previous to the enactment of the Assize Clarendon, the Catholic Church and nobility decided criminal cases by means of, “trial by ordeal or trial by battle or trial by compurgation” (Hurnard, 1941). Subsequent to the enactment of the Assize Clarendon, English law adopted an evidentiary model, in which evidence, assessment, and investigation was made by laymen, knights or ordinary freemen, under oath (Hurnard, 1941). Therefore, the Assize Clarendon had a significant impact on trial methods, …show more content…

However, the grand jury was gradually integrated into colonial society. The first conventional grand jury was not established until, 1635 (Kadish, 1996). The grand jury officially became codified in American law in 1791, with the adoption of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution (Kadish, 1996). While the federal government and all states in the United States currently have provisions for grand juries, only half of the states actually employ them and twenty-two require their use, to varying extents (Brenner & Shaw, 2003). California, Florida, and some other states, also use civil grand juries, investigating grand juries, or the equivalent, to oversee and investigate the conduct of government institutions, in addition to dealing with criminal indictments (Brenner & Shaw,

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