MÉXICO: EL BOTÍN

SYSTEM OF JURY INDICTMENT IN USA

     ( Mike Brown GRAND JURY )

  Overview and Executive Summary.

The type of federalism and the system of laws and rights in the United States leads to a very different legal system in its own structure. This difference is manifested in our jury system. There are three basic types of jury: The Grand Jury ("Grand Jury"), ordinary jury ("Petit Jury") also called the jury trial ("Trial Jury") and the blue ribbon jury ("Blue Ribbon Panel "). The two types of juries in criminal matters are involved grand jury and petit jury and in civil matters, there is only an ordinary jury.

The right to a trial by jury of your peers is the farm system of jurisprudence of the United States. Three of the ten amendments in the Bill of Rights of the USA specifically address this issue, namely: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury located in the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed," (6th Amendment) ; "In civil cases, when there are more controversial than twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved," (7th Amendment); and "No one shall be compelled to respond to a capital crime or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentation to a grand jury indictment," (5th Amendment).

The grand jury and a grand jury is based on English Common Law and has origins in the Magna Carta of 1215 when King John of England granted a concession to his subjects that they have the right to a jury of 12 knights were granted or free men from their own communities to do the initial investigation of the crimes may have been committed in the same community. The British colonialists brought the system of grand juries in the United States for at least a century before the Revolution of American Independence in 1776.

Although grand juries are rarely seen outside of the United States today, and while England and most nations of the English common law as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and England itself were deleted most grand juries, their use remains binding in federal criminal trials in the United States as well as in criminal proceedings in more than 40% of state systems in the USA We notice that American jurisdictions statewide have left the grand jury system, has been replaced by a system of preliminary hearings and accusations based on a document called a "tax information."

In the grand jury, which is an integral part of the system of weights and balances, it is determined whether there is sufficient evidence to begin a trial, after an examination of the evidence presented to them by a prosecutor in weighing the sufficiency thereof and when there is reasonable suspicion, probable cause or prima facie case that a crime has been committed. The federal grand jury is very powerful and can compel witnesses to testify before them. Its deliberations are secret, even to the accused himself. And since its only role is to determine whether probable cause exists, the prosecutor usually only presents enough evidence to make this preliminary determination. And while a defendant has an absolute right under the Fifth Amendment not to give self-incriminating testimony, the prosecutor can still call a potential defendant to testify, and forcing some testimonies under full or partial granting of immunity.

The federal grand jury, which must have about 23 members, with 16 members present to constitute a quorum and a minimum of 12 yeas to issue an indictment, usually sit for a period of 18 months and meet at regular intervals. Although formally commissioned by a federal judge, the judge is usually absent during all grand jury proceedings and is the federal prosecutor who interacts with the grand jury. While the grand jury is theoretically independent and instructions and charges are supposed to be somewhat codified and standardized, in fact, prosecutors have a wide latitude and discretion.

The federal grand jury has the power to issue subpoenas for witnesses and / or production of documents or objects. If a witness refuses to comply with the subpoena without lawful justification, or if a witness testifies falsely, may be considered in contempt of court, and is subject to punishment. It shows that it is almost impossible rejected a subpoena from a federal grand jury.

In general, the subject of a grand jury investigation has no absolute right to be allowed to testify before the grand jury, and the prosecutor is not obliged either to submit to the consideration of potential grand jury witnesses or any exculpatory testimony offered by the subject. And as a practical matter, a federal grand jury almost always come back with an indictment in any case brought by a prosecutor.

I. Grand Jury A. Historical Role of grand juries.

Under the common law of England, the grand jury as a buffer between prosecutors and citizens Rey developed. Today, they are the grand juries rarely outside the United States. England and Australia itself abandoned the grand juries in 1930 and New Zealand abolished the grand jury in 1961 Canada abolished in the 1970s about half of the states in the USA employs today, and only twenty use, to varying degrees is required. Most jurisdictions have abolished the state level to grand juries, replacing them with a system in which a prosecutor may initiate an accusation by a document called a 'information' and if the applicant wants to question or challenge the basis for the prosecution would then be a preliminary hearing at which a judge hears the evidence related to the alleged offenses and makes a judgment on whether the prosecution can proceed.

Based on common law systems like the United States, the grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether there is enough evidence alone to begin a trial. The grand juries perform this duty by investigating alleged crimes and crimes and examining evidence and other things presented to them by a prosecutor and issuing indictments after if he deserves. A grand jury is traditionally larger than and distinguishable from an ordinary jury, which is used during a trial. In most jurisdictions, are members of the grand jury of the same pool of potential jurors than any other jury panel, and likewise. The pool usually consists of names culled from the standards, ie multiple databases, such as state voting records, state licensing records of vehicles and lists of public services.

But unlike potential jurors in regular trials, the members of the grand jury if trends are incorrect or injury or other factors are not excluded. Mean to a grand jury to be part of the system of checks and balances to prevent a case goes to trial only by the blind words of a prosecutor. A prosecutor must convince the grand jury, an impartial panel of ordinary citizens, that there is reasonable suspicion, probable cause or prima facie case that a crime has been made​​.

B. Power of the Grand Jury.

Juries in federal indictment have enormous power within our criminal justice system. The grand jury can compel witnesses to testify before them. Unlike the trial itself, the grand jury, the proceedings are secret; the defendant and his counsel are generally not present to hear the testimony of other witnesses.

In the grand jury, his sentence is either a "true bill" (meaning that there is sufficient evidence to proceed to trial) or "no true bill" (meaning that there is insufficient evidence to continue). Because the role of the grand jury is to determine only whether there is probable cause, no need tododa jury heard the evidence, or even contradictory testimony. It is left to the good faith of the prosecutor to present conflicting evidence.

If the grand jury does not indicate a "true bill," the prosecutor can come back to start again, because the double jeopardy does not apply to grand jury. In practice, however, it is very uncommon for a prosecutor not winning in the first instance, back again without good reason and evidence and witnesses.

C. Constitutional Guarantees and Jury Indictment.

In our federal system, the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, one at the bottom of our Bill of Rights, requires all federal charges for serious crimes are first presented to a grand jury. We need to know that the constitutionality of the contemporary practices of the grand jury have been brought before the Supreme Court six times in history; however, the Court has not allowed even a case to be heard.

In all jurisdictions in the USA I still have a system of grand juries, a defendant has the right potential under Fifth Amendment self-incrimination testify. However, the prosecutor may ask a potential defendant to testify, and that person will then be required to exercise your right to the Fifth Amendment. And in some states, a witness who testified about crimes he has done can not be prosecuted for those crimes, unless he previously waived immunity. This practice occurs when a prosecutor wants to receive data from the most serious crimes of another co-author.

D. Structure of the Federal Jury Indictment.

Juries in federal indictment with a maximum of 23 members, 16 of whom must be present to form a quorum. The charges are valid for a vote of 12 or more members. Juries in federal prosecution typically sit for a term of 18 months and meet at all (at least weekly) intervals.

Although federal judges to juries selected federal indictment and formally monitored, these same judges do not usually interfere with grand jury investigations and judges remain in the jury room during the questioning of witnesses. The judge only needed for some themes immunities or contempt.

The federal prosecutor, ("The US Attorney") is the government official tasked with the role of relating to the federal grand jury. The federal tax guide all sessions of the grand jury, but he can not testify or be present during grand jury deliberations. The prosecutor prepares charges must be presented to the members of the grand jury at the beginning and end of the session. Also at the beginning jurors receive a handbook for members of the grand jury. It is standardized by the head of the federal courts to use in every cut and every grand jury manual. Many of the instructions given to jurors at the end of the session the prosecutor are also standardized to eliminate inconsistencies possibility although there are still many inconsistencies!

In theory, the grand jury is an independent body, and although the instructions given to the members of the grand jury report that they must think independently, the practical realities of the situation mitigated against that paradigm. The grand jury hears only cases brought by the prosecutor because the prosecutor generally decides whether he or she has enough evidence to seek an indictment. Next, the prosecutor decides which witnesses will testify. The prosecutor decides which witnesses will receive immunity. One theory of the case is created by the prosecutor, and the prosecutor builds his questions on that topic. And although they allow members of the grand jury question witnesses after testimony with the prosecutor, and even occasionally members of the grand jury can be asked if they wanted to hear any additional witnesses, since the role of the jury indictment is only to judge what has been the prosecutor, jurors rarely do such things.

E. Citing witnesses before the Grand Jury.

Federal grand jury subpoenas can be for (a) the testimony, called "subpoena ad testificandum," (b) for documents or objects, called "subpoena duces tecum," or (c) both. The type of citation is obvious from the face of the document, and

You. Could be cited as an individual or as custodian of records for a business entity. It is indicated that a witness who refuses to testify without legal justification is in contempt of court and can be punished by a fine or imprisonment for the remaining term of the grand jury or both. A witness who testifies falsely may also be prosecuted for their falsehoods. The lawyer can not be with his accused in grand jury room, but the lawyer can park outside the room and defendant has the absolute right to consult with him after each question. In fact, the accused may spend as many hours as needed to confer with his lawyer, while the accused is not trying to interrupt the grand jury. In most jurisdictions, the witness can write notes of the questions asked during the session of the grand jury and you can share them later his lawyer. If you cite to testimony in his individual capacity, you can avoid answering substantive questions by invoking the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. The right to invoke this privilege is much broader than most people realize. If a response to a question from the grand jury would tend to incriminate him, if the answer could provide a link in the chain that could lead to his conviction, you. You can invoke the privilege and refuse to answer. To wait from being ensnared by an incompetent, misguided or unscrupulous tax, the Supreme Court has told us that the privilege under the Fifth Amendment should protect the innocent himself as the guilty.

A witness is under no obligation to speak with government agents before the grand jury proceedings begin and the government has no authority to force a previous interview. These previous interviews can be dangerous to a witness. Lying to government agents during an interview, such as lying to federal grand jury during any part of the process, is a federal offense. And while there will be a recording and / or an official transcript of the proceedings of the grand jury, no preliminary interview with a government agent will be recorded and why, when there are different memories, and there always will be a case of witness word against the word of a federal prosecutor.

In general, the subject of an investigation by the grand jury has no absolute right to testify unless cited, nor have any right to compel the grand jury hear certain witnesses or evidence. However, if a subject requested an opportunity to testify, the prosecutor general permit, but without any grant of immunity. The prosecutor may refuse to present evidence submitted by a subject. In federal jury indictment exculpatory evidence need not be presented, but in many state systems exculpatory evidence must be submitted to the grand jury.

Federal prosecutors have the ability in grand juries to introduce hearsay evidence, told by a third party testing and other gals that would not be admissible in an ordinary trial. And if witnesses lying to the grand jury, or use a tax unconstitutionally obtained evidence, the only remedy available to the subject is that you can challenge the evidence at trial and only if the prosecutor seeks to engage the test during the trial.

Is one of the reasons that a subject must exercise its rights under the Fifth Amendment is that he or she can not know whether the prosecutor has presented to the jury that witnesses have lied. The subject can not risk testify contrary to those witnesses because of fear of being charged with criminal falsehoods, "perjury" if the prosecutor does not believe his testimony.

Some federal prosecutors try to quote subjects or witnesses back to the grand jury to testify multiple times. This can be very dangerous for a witness, because he can give sworn testimony inadvertently contrary, allowing the government order to witness two irreconcilable and contradictory statements under oath. And to convict, the government must prove that even one of the statements was false! However, if someone is referred to federal grand jury to testify for a second time, he has the right to review testify before the official transcript of his earlier testimony, to correct any errors, and prepare for the next session.

F. Procedures Federal Jury Indictment.

As a practical matter, a federal grand jury indictment almost always make an accusation in any case brought by a prosecutor. This is the basis for the famous saying of Judge Saul Wachler, the President of the Court in New York, that a prosecutor can get a grand jury to "process a ham sandwich."

In conducting investigations, a federal grand jury indictment can do what he wants, except violate certain constitutional privileges. Federal grand jury subpoenas rarely leave and the Supreme Court has said that the federal grand jury subpoenas are presumed to be reasonable and the burden of demonstrating that is unreasonable for the subject. If there is even a drop of reasonable possibility that the category of materials submitted by the government searches relevant to the general subject of the grand jury investigation information, we can not stop the subpoena. Jurors federal grand jury indictment, transcriptionists and prosecutors working with a federal grand jury are under an absolute duty to keep secret all things and those that have occurred before the grand jury. Violations of this rule may result in penalties or criminal contempt. However, the rule of secrecy does not apply to federal grand jury witnesses. If you are a witness before a federal grand jury, you have the right to tell the world about everything from his testimony before the grand jury, although federal prosecutors often try to intimidate witnesses not to disclose his testimony.

II. The blue ribbon juries.

The jury blue ribbon jury is not typical in the sense of a civil or criminal jury. Rather, it is designated for a policy to investigate certain situations or things entity exploratory committee, preparing an essay with their results, and ultimately publishes its recommendations. While criminal charges can be made ​​by a federal or state tax as a result of the evidence given in the report, the most likely outcome is that a legislative body simply take the results and recommend certain changes to the body of existing law. Two of the most famous examples of these jurors would be the "Warren Commission" created after the assassination of President JFK in 1963 and the "Commission of September Eleven" after the terrorist attacks against the United States in 2001.