The Greenville County Grand Jury indicts almost every case presented to it by the 13th Circuit Solicitor. In the past solicitors presented the cases without any testimony. Now, Law in Action believes solicitors only present hearsay testimony from police officers and sheriff’s deputies without firsthand witnesses in most cases. As evidence of that we have the study we conducted for indictments in 2017. During that year Law in Action found the Greenville County Grand Jury returned over 5,000 “true bills” of indictment, an average of 425 cases per session that lasts no more (and probably must less than) eight hours, including lunch. In addition we found that in 2017 there was not a single “no bill” for the entire year. That means that the grand jury indicted every case submitted to it by the prosecutor.
Additionally we found that of the cases indicted during 2017 that were later resolved, over 50% of those indictments were dismissed. And in one case a woman was indicted who had been dead for six months!
Law in Action believes that it is important that county grand jury not simply “rubber stamp” cases presented to it by the prosecution and that the testimony be accessible to defendants. The state grand jury already has a law in place requiring that grand jury testimony be recorded and accessible. Law in Action would like the General Assembly to pass a similar law to cover county grand juries.