# Have you even been on a grand jury? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 17, 2007, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-even-been-on-a-grand-jury/426785 "2007-11-17T01:42:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-even-been-on-a-grand-jury/426785/1 "2007-11-17T01:42:54Z")
I’m in the midst of my first grand jury experience and I’m curious about the process in other jurisdictions. I know the proceedings are secret, but I’d like to know how it works where you are. I’m in Maryland, specifically in St. Mary’s County. Grand jury duty is for a period of 6 months, roughly bi-weekly on Wednesdays. We have our own little sequestered area of the courthouse. You enter a small vestibule where the coffee, donuts, and bailiff are kept. On the far right is a small room where the State’s attorney and police will wait their turn to present their cases to us. Just to the left of that is the door to the big room where we deliberate. It’s like a large conference room with a table, lots of chairs around the perimeter, and a chalk board. At the far end of the room is a door that opens to a hallway from which one can access the rest rooms or, going around to the left, it leads back to the vestibule. For the record, they get some goooooood donuts! On our first day, a rep from the State’s Attorney Office came in and explained how Maryland’s judicial process works. He also threw in some stuff about the Magna Carta and TV shows. The main thing he emphasized is that our deliberations are secret. A typical session lasts several hours. Each case is presented by a prosecutor and the police officer/detective in charge of the investigation. They read the charges, describe the evidence, answer any questions we have, then they leave the room. We may or may not discuss the case, then we vote whether or not to indict. The foreman and the secretary sign the indictment, and they give it to the bailiff. Then the next pair come in. To my mind, it’s better than a jury trial, because we can ask questions. And in our last session, the prosecutor was actually asking our advice and suggestions for presenting the case, since it was rather complex and she figured if we were confused, the petit jury would probably be confused also. If I can say anything negative about the experience, I’ve learned about some of the skeevy people that live in my county. On the other hand, most of them are pretty stupid. I mean, really - when a police officer comes to your place of business and asks to speak with you, it’s probably not too bright to say “Oh, this is about that murder, isn’t it?” When we’ve heard all the cases for the day, we go to one of the courtrooms and the indictments are presented to the judge. We are thanked and dismissed. And for all of this, we get and expense check of $15 each session. I give mine back as a donation to a children’s camp fund, since I’m gainfully employed and the $15 isn’t needed or missed. So, care to share your experiences? ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-even-been-on-a-grand-jury/426785/2 "2007-11-17T02:02:36Z")
Basically the same thing, 6 months, $15 a session. We only met once a month, but had a pretty full day each time. All types of law enforcement witnesses, I don’t recall any non-LEO witnesses during my stint, but I’ve had to testify in front of a grand jury so I know that is a possibility. I liked it, every session was such a variety of different offences, many that were surprising, many mundane (lots of 3rd DWI-felony). The assistant DA that did almost all of the presentations was smoking hot and had been married to a guy I went to school with (and used to party fairly hardy with). It was worth it to see her dig into her files. We weren’t a rubber stamp, we asked a lot of questions, questioned the evidence, and no-billed several cases. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Talk about dirty laundry, whew! and this is a fairly small district. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-even-been-on-a-grand-jury/426785/3 "2007-11-17T12:31:21Z")
Most of the things we’ve heard so far are mundane also - lots of drug-dealing concentrated in a fairly tight area of the county, plus miscellaneous assaults, burglaries, robberies, and drunken misbehaviors. I’m fairly new here (just over 3 years) so most of the names don’t mean anything, but I expect for long-time residents, there’s the reaction of “Hey, I knew his daddy’s barber!” or some such. And of all of the cases presented, there was only one that I recall happening, but it was a pretty spectacular crime. One thing that cracks me up - when fellow jurors ask questions of the prosecutor/officer, one of the most frequent answers is “It isn’t like on television.” Good fingerprint evidence is rare, and DNA workups take months to come back from the lab somewhere upstate. I bet attornies hate having clients or witnesses who watch too much CSI or L&O! ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-even-been-on-a-grand-jury/426785/4 "2007-11-17T15:40:50Z")
I did grand jury in Manhattan back around 2000 or '01; it wasn’t for anything akin to a 6 month stint (whew!), more like six _weeks_ IIRC. It was during the day for half-days and not every day of the week, but it did mean missing a chunk of work. Ours was a special GJ session devoted to drug cases, maybe that had something to do with it. We were fairly hard on the prosecutors (compared to a rumored attitude of “it’s only an grand jury, they’ll get a chance to show they’re not guilty at trial, they must’ve had some reason for bringing this case against them, let’s respect the cops” that was sometimes prevalent): you want an indictment, give us some probable cause. “Well, he _could’ve_ had it in order to sell it” isn’t sufficient for “intent to sell”. On the other hand, we were pretty fair about indicting folks even when the prevailing attitude was “why is that a crime” — while most of the charges were cocaine, heroin, etc, there were a couple that were simply marijuana possession — if they had sufficient support for the charges. Letter of the law and all that. It was kind of fun. There was down-time, sometimes several hours when they simply didn’t have anything for us. I brought my PowerBook and watched DVDs 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-even-been-on-a-grand-jury/426785/5 "2007-11-17T17:00:25Z")
[QUOTE=FairyChatMom] One thing that cracks me up - when fellow jurors ask questions of the prosecutor/officer, one of the most frequent answers is “It isn’t like on television.” Good fingerprint evidence is rare, and DNA workups take months to come back from the lab somewhere upstate. I bet attornies hate having clients or witnesses who watch too much CSI or L&O! [/QUOTE] I saw a newpaper story to that effect a while ago, that CSI and such is giving the public unreasonable expectations of what can be done with forensics. I couldn’t find that article, but [here’s](http://www.saljournal.com/rdnews/story/CSI_Seminar_story_110707) one where a forensics person complains that even the investigators are getting unreasonable expectations. > [@link news story](#): > > McGinnis said some of those investigators, unfortunately, watch “CSI,” and they have unreasonable expectations about what forensic scientists can do. She said an investigator once handed over a brick that had been thrown through a window and asked scientists to extract DNA and fingerprints from that brick. It was impossible. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-even-been-on-a-grand-jury/426785/6 "2007-11-17T18:05:42Z")
My posts from last December, on a different board. I’m sasuming it’s kosher for me to quote my own posts (an no one else’s): > [@](#): > > Just a kvetch. Most of my work is at a university. We’re in finals week. This means that when I answered the jury duty notice and was put on Grand Jury, I had no acceptable reason to ask for dismissal. However, it wasn’t well-explained to us at the time of selection that this was going to be an every day, most-of-the-day commitment for the next 4 weeks. (And oh, yeah: They can recall us after that, too.) Our lunches have been curtailed, our breaks non-existent, and we’ve run over both days so far. I’m trying to grade papers and post my course grades (due early next week) and thinking how the hell am I going to get all my syllabi written before the start of winter term? Meanwhile, the information given to us has been garbled, incomplete, contradictory, and sometimes flat-out wrong (e.g., where can we park without getting a ticket?) and I can’t get an answer on whether I may be dismissed for an hour to see a high-need client on Friday. > > The jury room is minuscle and everyone’s complaining of back, neck, or leg pain. As a faculty member, I get to stroll around the room when I teach; as a therapist, I never sit for more than two hours without getting up and walking around. Apparently this works better for my metabolism than I ever thought, because my normal snacks, in the Grand Jury context of no functional movement, are making my blood sugar spike and crash. It makes me want to make comments like, “Even when I worked in factories we got a 15 minute break in every half-shift!” No, no, no. Do not annoy the DA and its minions. > > Trying to get everything done for work on top of the jury duty has got my blood pressure hanging at 158/110 (high for me), plus I just want to weep with frustration about losing my whole winter break. I work very, very hard and I’m feeling penalized for not having booked a vacation away (which would have put me back in the regular jury pool). It’s like when I was getting a master’s degree and my roommate had a job–somehow because I was at home I was available to do things. Now I feel like because I didn’t go away for vacation, I’m considered to be available for the court, with no option to say “Hey! I have to have some down time, and do house repairs, and do all the things faculty do between terms, and do my quarterlies, or I won’t do anyone any good come January!” Nope; I don’t have to teach so I belong to the court. > > All of this makes me feel pissed off, which is not I how I feel about serving on a jury in and of itself. Grand Jury duty seems to be constructed in a way that makes it more punative than not. I start fantasizing about refusing Grand Jury duty if it comes up again, because the penalty for refusing can’t be more time-consuming or annoying than actually doing my civic duty. I wouldn’t actually do this, and I’m trying to get behind a positive attitude, but it’s hard. > > Now, since every cognitive intervention at my disposal is not working to decrease my stress about trying to get everything done while working a full-time job-equivalent, I am popping an Ativan and lying down until it is time to get up again. Maybe tonight I won’t dream that I’m working all night. > [@](#): > > I don’t mind doing the duty, but a month is a long block of time and although I don’t teach for a few weeks here, there isn’t anybody else who can do my grading, write my syllabi, or write reference letters. Or do any of the things I usually do during the academic “break,” like write, clean, de-moss the roof, do my taxes, etc. I work at least 60 hours a week during the term, and none of what I do over the break can be done by another person, so I’m probably running at about 75 hours of work right now. I’ve also never been great at sitting still for more than a couple of hours unless I can multitask, which I can’t while hearing cases all day. > > Yes, the indictments the DA’s office requests generally are affirmed by the Grand Jury. That’s because prosecution simply needs to show a reasonable chance that they’re true, not prove its case. To call it “rubber stamping” dismisses the care that I see the jurors exercising to be sure that the evidence presented and the wording of the law support the proposed indictment, and that a different indictment or a decision not to issue an indictment would not be a more just route. I’m exhausted when I come home, and I’m no slouch when it comes to prolonged, intense notetaking and questioning about technical matters. > [@](#): > > There’s no baliff. Nobody in the room but grand jurors, prosecuter, and witnesses. Outside there’s a volunteer. > > I want to be very clear: I’m not complaining about serving. I’m complaining about a month of service that entails being called in almost every day, and spending hours in an inadequate room. > [@](#): > > The Service That Never Ends > So my Grand Jury was held over on a case. Fine. We got a letter saying that we had to notify the DA’s Office if we were going out of town. Fine. I called to say that I would be away for a part of a week in March, and when did this end? because I need to be available at work for potential travel that might not be booked until right before it happens. The DA’s Office left a reply that we were held over April, but at that time the attorney could hold us over again on the same case. … It also feels like being a captive of the judicial system, or a punishment for having given a month of my time. I don’t like it at all! We were never sent the promised letter saying that we were now released. I assumed that we were when I read in the paper about the outcome of the case we’d been held over for. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-even-been-on-a-grand-jury/426785/7 "2007-11-17T20:41:11Z")
I was on the Civil Grand Jury. Do not, whatever the DA sez, indite that ham sandwich. 😛