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That's an interesting report because I've seen statistics [citation required] that Grand Juries vote to indict in 99.9% of cases. I was locked up for 8 years in
by kingcharles 5y ago
That's an interesting report because I've seen statistics [citation required] that Grand Juries vote to indict in 99.9% of cases. I was locked up for 8 years in a county jail and I only saw one instance where the grand jury did not return a "true bill", and the Constitution in that case then allows the prosecutor a second chance by then doing a prelminary hearing in front of the judge instead. At which point the judge immediately found probable cause.
The case was that someone said they had seen, from the street, the suspect walking around in his basement with a gun in his hand. They called the police. 47 officers arrived at the house, but the suspect had left earlier. They found him several blocks from the house with no firearm on him and arrested him for Unlawful Use or Possession of a Firearm by a Felon (he had a previous conviction from years prior). The judge took pity on him and offered to let him plead to Attempted Possession of a Firearm to get him to plead guilty, which he did and only had to do 6 months in prison for a crime he didn't actually commit. (It was shown that it was impossible to see into the basement from where the reporting citizen was stood.)
- jrockway 5y agoI think that some care should be taken on statistics like "99.9% indictment rate". If you can control the number of cases in the denominator, then you can make it match the numerator. (I'm implying that if the grand jury is looking bad, you can close the case before they indict.) In that case, anything not equal to 100% just tells you that someone doesn't know how to play the numbers game... and in 2021, EVERYONE knows how to play the numbers game.