I’ve been on a jury once, but not a Grand Jury.
On two separate TV shows this past week, a seated Grand Jury was shown, and the jurors were asking questions of the prosecutor, the defence, and the accused. Is this accurate? I know on a regular jury, you sit quiet and don’t say a word. Do Grand Jury memebers get to do this?. Bonus question. Why 23 members, instead of the jury count of 12?
Yes, grand jury members are permitted to ask questions of the witnesses, of the prosecutor, and even summon witnesses that they want to hear from independently of the prosecutor’s desires.
This is how there can be a “runaway grand jury.” The prosecutor presents evidence to the grand jury to get them to indict Mr. X for some crime. The grand jury independently starts pursuing some completely tangential line of evidence, and ends up indicting other people for other crimes, crimes that the prosecutor had no intention of bringing before them, and may not even have suspected.
I gather it doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, I believe it usually involves things like official corruption. If the grand jury starts following the money trail, it leads in directions the prosecutor would perhaps rather have left unexplored.
I don’t think that’s an ironclad rule.
For example, here’s a story about a county court in Ohio that was experimenting with allowing petit jurors to ask questions during a trial. (But note that the jurors were not allowed to ask their questions directly. They had to submit them in writing to the judge.)
I have no idea how widespread this practice is or if it’s ever allowed in criminal trials or in the federal court system. Perhaps one of the lawyers on the board could comment.