By Noralyn Dudt
A SUMMONS from Montgomery
County Circuit Court to serve in the Grand Jury in 2018 surely came as a
surprise. It has been 30 years since I requested the Montgomery County Court to
remove my name from the jury pool as it was nearly impossible for me to leave
my job if I were to be selected. In 2018, I was already semi-retired and I had time to spare so receiving the
summons was… well.... sort of exciting. The Jury Commissioner has a big list of
potential jurors and I never imagined I would be among the 23. But just a day
before the voir dire (jury selection), I was surprised to get a call from the
Commissioner's office. She wanted to make sure that I would be at the
Courthouse the next day.
What is a Grand Jury ? A Grand Jury is a group of citizens who
are presented with evidence associated with a case and then determine if there
is enough information to move forward on those charges based on the evidence
presented to them. They are selected at random from a cross section of the
citizens who reside within the jurisdiction where the case will be indicted.
This cross section is drawn from voter registration as well as Motor Vehicle
Administration lists, depending on the County where one resides. To be eligible
for grand jury, one must be at least 18 years of age, a United States citizen,
a state resident, able to read, write, and understand the English language. The
grand jury derives its name from the fact that it usually has a greater number
of jurors than a trial (petit) jury which has 12.
All 23 of us, a diverse group (a Black college student, a retired
judge, a retired physician of Asian descent, several teachers, a physical
therapist, dentists, a Naval officer, a newly-minted U.S. citizen of
college-age from Eastern Europe) convened in the Grand Jury room in the
Courthouse on Tuesdays and Thursdays for three months in the summer of 2018. On each morning that we signed in, we
were given dockets that listed all the
cases we were going to review that day. Some days we had 15-20 cases to
review and we would have to postpone
lunch until late afternoon. Chief Investigators, prosecutors and witnesses who were summoned came to the Grand Jury room to provide us
information. The prosecutor along with the witnesses presented evidence and arguments—arguments
that may persuade us, the grand jury to
indict the suspect. We took notes, and asked questions. After they left the
room, we discussed each case and voted whether probable cause, or prima facie
evidence existed to charge someone with a crime. Montgomery County criminal
cases are usually only indicted if the prosecutor has enough evidence to
present to a grand jury. However, a grand jury also can conduct its own
investigation.
One of the earliest concepts of
grand juries dates back to ancient Greece where Athenians used an
accusatory body. In medieval England, it
was already in use during the reign of
Henry III (1216-72) It is distinctively a development of the common law (i.e.,
law based on judicial decisions, as evolved in England and the United States).
The Grand Jury can also be traced to the time of the Norman
conquest of England in 1066. There is
evidence that the courts of that time summoned a body of sworn neighbors to
present crimes that had come to their knowledge. Since the members of that
accusing jury were selected from small jurisdictions, it was natural that they
could present accusations based on their personal knowledge.
When the Grand Jury determines whether there is "probable
cause" that an individual has
committed a crime, the case will be put on trial in the courtroom presided by a
judge. To put it simply: a Grand Jury of 23 members who convene in a Grand Jury
room without the presence of a judge, decide if someone should be charged with
a crime, while a Trial Jury of 12 individuals
in the Courtroom in the presence of the judge and lawyers, decide after
evidence offered during a trial, whether the accused or defendant is guilty.
In the courtroom, the presiding judge will tell the selected jurors
about the case, and introduce them to the lawyers and others who are involved
in the case. They also take an oath in which they promise to answer all
questions truthfully.
Taking all that into account, one could ask, "what are the advantages of having a Grand Jury ?
As the Grand Jury is a constitutional requirement for certain types of crimes,
it plays an important role in protecting citizens against unfounded criminal
prosecutions. A group of law-abiding citizens who do not know the defendant can
make an unbiased decision about the evidence before voting to charge an
individual with a crime. In its investigative capacity, a grand jury can subpoena documents and
witnesses. Grand Jury proceedings are secret in accordance with Rule 6(e) of
the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedures. No judge is present; the proceedings
are led by a prosecutor and the defendant has no right to present his case or
(in many instances) to be informed of the proceedings at all.
That jurors may lack legal knowledge is a constant criticism of
the Grand Jury system. But in my experience with my Grand Jury team in the summer of 2018, our
"lack of legal knowledge" was compensated by the valuable information
we received from the Chief Investigators, prosecutors and witnesses, and the diligence
and care with what we did with that information: it was discussed, dissected
and probed. We were careful not to send cases to the courts unnecessarily that
could overwhelm the system. As we were also bussed as a group to Correctional
facilities ( jails) and Rehabilitation centers, we saw firsthand how first arrests were processed; how prisoners
were allowed to take courses in the prison library by instructors from the
county college; that prisoners were paid for some of the chores they were allowed
to do in prison; how rehabilitation could work successfully for first time
offenders and other details that we were supposed to know. The prisoners were
allowed to share their grievances with us and the Court tasked us to make
recommendations for improvement.
At the beginning of our Grand Jury session, both the Chief Investigator and the
prosecutors who were going to
present details of the cases and what the law said about them remarked,
"by the end of these three months, you will have felt like you have gone
to Law School and the apprenticeship in the Court."
And they were certainly right. It was a civic duty but it also
taught us to be more appreciative of the fact that ordinary citizens have this
voice in a democratic society.
Noralyn Onto Dudt wore Badge 15508284 during her three-month Grand Jury term, and felt
privileged to have been selected to perform a civic duty in this capacity.