Comment on Accused killer of US insurance CEO pleads not guilty to 'terrorist' murder

• IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  You can keep convening grand juries against someone for the same event until they agree to indict?

  Think about it this way. The grand jury is basically taking on the role of a prosecutor for the sole decision of whether or not to indict, after that, the actual prosecutor takes over.

  If you are a civillian, and the prosecutor that has jurisdiction refuses to prosecute, say, the murder of your child, you can then wait for the prosecutor to lose office (either by losing an election, or wait for someone else to get appointed, depending on how its selected in your area), then ask the new prosecutor to file the charges, and since murder has no statute of limitations, you can keep trying this until a prosecutor decides to indict.

  This is essentially what a grand jury is. They are temporary taking the role of the prosecutor, for one act, and one act only, deciding whether or not to indict.

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  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Right, but that doesn’t answer if they convene a grand jury for a specific alleged crime, and the grand jury says “no”, can they try again with a new jury? For the same alleged crime? That seems like an obvious flaw in that they can just keep trying until they get an indictment and can proceed. There’d be no point in the grand jury step because it eventually returns an indictment.

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    • IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      I don’t think its insane.

      If half of a grand jury is enough to acquit, then you are basically doing a coin toss to see if someone like Dylan Roof gets to walk free.

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      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

        it seems weird that the state can keep trying until they get the answer they want. Why is that protection only available later?

        It wouldn’t be a coin toss - the odds are heavily slanted in favor of the prosecutor. The defense has no role.

        Also does this mean that those times cops didn’t get indicted, the state could have tried again?

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