CLAYTON A criminal trial is public, but whether there will be one is often the decision of a grand jury in a secret process that may seem mysterious.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch has chosen to have a grand jury consider whether Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson should face charges in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.
A prosecutor exercises substantial control by deciding what evidence to present and what specific charges to consider. A New York judge, Solomon Wachtler, famously said a prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.
Its no joke, Cohen said. That vividly places the power of the prosecutor in context.
Grand jurors are pulled from the same pool of ordinary people as petit jurors, the ones who decide trials, and are paid the same, in St. Louis County about $18 a day plus mileage.
A judge tries to balance members gender, race and geography. Here, a grand jury meets on Wednesdays for four months. The current one is set to expire Sept 10 but will be extended to hear all the evidence in the Brown case, McCulloch said. He said the grand jury had three black members, out of 12 total.
The process provides no opportunity for a defense. Subjects of the investigation are invited to testify, but few accept, and must leave their attorneys outside.