Abstract
Section I of this Note explores the extent to which the American Bar Association (ABA) Practice Guide, and similar major ethical conventions and advisory opinions, present competing interpretations of the grand jury's role in the criminal justice system. The lack of prosecutorial disclosure of exculpatory evidence, grand jury secrecy, and the abundance of plea negotiations demonstrate how historicized visions of the grand jury are appropriated to serve distinct conceptions of the institution's proper role. Section II offers a historical narrative of the grand jury that places grand jurors' "local knowledge" and experience at the heart of an inherently interpretive and evaluative enterprise. Section III addresses recent proposals for grand jury reform that create a more juror-centered and autonomy-emphasizing vision of the grand jury system. Drawing on interviews with grand jurors, prosecutors, and legal scholars who have experience with state and federal grand juries, Section IV highlights an aspect of grand jury process that is deserving of closer study: the absence of adequate training for grand jurors.
In light of grand jurors' concerns about their ill-defined responsibilities in the shifting institution of the grand jury, this Note concludes in Section V with a proposal that judicial (rather than prosecutorial) oversight play a more active role in rendering the grand jury intelligible to its jurors.
This abstract has been taken from the author's introduction.
Document Type
Note
Publication Date
2011
Publication Information
24 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 761-781 (2011)
Repository Citation
Offit, Anna, "Ethical Guidance for a Grander Jury" (2011). Faculty Publications. 2454.
https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/facpubs/2454