History
Service on a grand jury will provide you with a unique opportunity to participate in the administration of justice. In order to better appreciate the functions of the grand jury today, it is necessary to understand a little about its history
and evolution.
While there may have been a similar body in Athens, Greece, before the first century A.D. and in 10th century Scandinavia, the direct ancestor of the modern grand jury is generally accepted to date from the 1166 A.D. decree of King Henry II of England. This decree required 12 knights or other freemen of every hundred and four men of every township to submit accusations of murder, robbery, larceny and harboring of criminals. Under the Norman and Plantagenet kings, judges were required to ride a circuit to hold court in the outlying counties. Because the majority of criminal cases were brought by private citizens, many cases were found to be completely baseless. The panel of knights and freemen called for in Henry II’s decree provided a ready screening device to weed out baseless cases before they went to trial. This panel became known as the great or, in Norman French, the "grand" jury (the trial jury, by contrast, is the small or ordinary, the "petit" jury). Because they were also charged by the King with discovering what crimes had been committed in the county since the previous term of court, they were also called the "Grand Inquest."
While during the 13th and 14th centuries the members of the grand jury formed the whole or part of the petit jury, eventually, a total separation of the grand and petit juries evolved. By this time the primary function of the grand jury emerged: that is, to look at the prosecutor’s evidence and determine if there was probable cause for indictment. In addition to acting as a screening device, the grand jury also provided citizens a degree of local control over criminal prosecutions. Few criminal cases could be presented to the courts unless at least 12 of the grand jurors in the locality where the crime had occurred concurred in a "true bill." This procedural safeguard, guaranteed to all Englishmen by the Magna Charta, provided protection against attempts by the King and nobles to persecute citizens through the use of unwarranted criminal charges.
When English colonists began settling in North America, they continued to follow the English legal system which included the grand jury. It was during this period that grand juries acquired many administrative duties outside the criminal law. In Georgia, the grand jury is older than the superior courts, the first grand jury having been convened in 1735 in Savannah during the Trustee period. Prior to the American Revolution, grand juries in Georgia and the other colonies played a significant role in opposing British policies.
After the Revolutionary War, the grand jury continued to be a part of the judicial systems in the 13 original states. While no mention was made of the grand jury in the Constitution of the United States when it was proposed for ratification in 1787, provisions for the grand jury were taken up by Congress when it met for the first time in 1789. In the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, it was provided that:
Fifth Amendment
"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury."
In Georgia, grand juries played an important role in the development of the State. The routes for many of our early roads were suggested by grand juries in their general presentments and grand juries were among the first public bodies to alert the citizens of Georgia to the infamous Yazoo Land Fraud. Grand juries also were instrumental in the calling of the Constitutional Convention of 1877.
Beginning in the late 1800s, questions about the grand jury began to appear. Critics characterized grand juries as “an expensive and cumbersome relic that had outlived its usefulness” and by the early part of the 20th century many of the Western states had abolished or limited the use of the grand jury.
In Georgia, concern that some grand juries were abusing their authority to review local government led the legislature in 1869 to provide that “the duties of a grand jury shall be confined to such matters and things as by law it is required to perform.” In addition, courts began to impose limits on the contents of grand jury presentments, holding that a grand jury could not accuse someone of misconduct except by indictment or special presentment.
The role of the grand jury continues to evolve to meet the demands of society. While duties such as inspecting and recommending roads have passed into history, new duties have taken their place. These will be discussed in greater detail in the sections that follow.
While the grand jury remains a powerful institution through which ordinary citizens can participate directly in local government, its powers are not unlimited. Within the limits established by law, it is capable of providing a wealth of benefits to all of the citizens of your community.