Part 5 of 5 of my series on Grand Juries: How can someone accused of a crime benefit from the Grand Jury process? When someone is accused of a felony, it is often by complaint. That means the case has not been indicted yet. This is a very important stage for the accused. If he does nothing, the case will almost certainly get indicted in the near future. At that point, it is too late for an attorney to attack the case in the Grand Jury. That is why it is very important for an

Part 4 of my series on Grand Juries: What else can a Grand Jury do? Where I last left off, I talked about the process by which a Grand Jury reviews a case briefly with a prosecutor then votes whether to indict. That is the vast majority of Grand Jury cases. But Grand Juries also have investigative powers. A Grand Jury can summon witnesses to testify under oath, produce records and other items, and they really get to run the show if they choose to. A prosecutor will often use

Part 3 of my series on Grand Juries: What goes on in that Grand Jury room? This is the door to the Grand Jury area at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center. Through this door is a pair of waiting rooms, a reception area where the Bailiffs are, and behind that are the Grand Jury rooms. The proceedings of a Grand Jury behind closed doors are secret by law. It is actually a crime for a Grand Juror, prosecutor, court reporter, interpreter, bailiff, or anyone else privy to the

Part 2 in my series about Grand Juries: Who are the "Grand Jurors"? Grand Jurors are just citizens like anyone else. There are a series of requirements (Article 19.08 of the Code of Criminal Procedure if you really want to look it up), but basically, they come from the same pool of people who get summoned to jury duty. A panel of prospective Grand Jurors are summoned by the Judge, questioned by the Judge, and ultimately the Grand Jury is selected by the Judge out of that pane

Non-criminal lawyer folks don't often know much about the Grand Jury process, so I'm going to do a few posts over the next week or so laying out the basic facts of the process, how it works, and ultimately how a person accused of a crime can use the Grand Jury to his advantage in certain cases. As someone who has presented hundreds of cases to grand juries in my previous life as a prosecutor, I have an insider view of how it works. In Texas, any felony charge must be "indicte