What Is a Grand Jury and How Is It Different in California?

November 26, 2014

CBS Sacramento

By Tony Lopez

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The decision to not indict officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, came from a grand jury, so we wanted to dig into the process of how one is put together.

Most of us are familiar with the usual jury system, where you get a summons to appear and fulfill your civic duty.

But who is eligible to sit on a grand jury?

“The same people who are eligible to sit on a regular jury,” said defense attorney Ken Rosenfeld. “You have to be an adult over 18, you can’t have a felony conviction and you have to be a citizen of the United States.”

But grand juries can differ from state to state and even from county to county, Rosenfeld said.

“Placer County is different from Los Angeles [County] in respect to their grand jury system,” he said. “One has 19 members, the other 23, so each county can make their own rules.”

But the goal is the same—deciding whether charges or an indictment should be brought forward against a defendant in a criminal case. In California, defendants aren’t called to testify in front of a grand jury.

That wasn’t the case in Ferguson.

“He actually testified, the officer. That generally doesn’t happen in a grand jury because the person doesn’t really know what’s happening the state of California for the most part,” Rosenfeld said.

There’s another big difference in terms of burden of proof.

“Their grand jury has to actually believe the prosecution can prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said. “In California it’s just enough that a case should go to trial or could go to trial.”

In California you either get a special summons, or you can apply by contacting your local county’s jury commissioner and be willing to make a time commitment.

“Grand juries generally convene for a year and the people who are allowed to be on and accept the responsibility of it, understand they can be impaneled for a year,” he said.

Meaning they need to be ready to go at a moment’s notice to hand down a recommendation that can change the course of someone’s life.