LAW 2505 - Real Time Lawyering Skills: The Grand Jury
The Real Time Lawyering: The Grand Jury skills course introduces students to the realities of criminal law practice from the prosecutor’s perspective.
The Grand Jury is a three day course that will simulate that time pressured grand jury preparation and presentation experience of a typical assistant district attorney in a New York District Attorney’s Office. Time sensitivity is reality based due to stringent statutory requirements regarding post arrest detention and grand jury action. In New York, where defendants are held in custody after arraignment on the felony complaint, prosecutors have 120 hours from the filing of that felony complaint to seek grand jury action on the charges. Failure to do will result in the defendant’s release. Prosecutors therefore must act quickly to investigate the charges and determine whether or not to seek grand jury action while considering not only the sufficiency of the evidence but the eventual admissibility of that evidence in light of the constitutional, evidentiary, and statutory constraints.
The students will investigate, analyze and ultimately present cases to a New York grand jury. The students will work within the real time constraints of a busy district attorney’s office that must present cases to a grand jury. Skills to be taught within the Grand Jury three day course include witness interviewing and examinations, factual and legal analysis, and conduct of grand jury proceedings. In addition, students will discuss and deal with various ethical concerns that they will discover while investigating and preparing the grand jury cases. Understanding and integrating various criminal legal principles within the context of the factual frameworks of the cases will be a pertinent part of the course.
Prerequisites & Notes
None.
Credits: 1
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