O.C.G.A. § 15-12-67 (2019)

Annotations

JUDICIAL DECISIONS Discrimination in selection of foreman not due process violation. - Discrimination in the selection of a grand jury foreman can have little, if any, appreciable effect upon a defendant’s due process rights to fundamental fairness and therefore provides no basis upon which to reverse a conviction or dismiss an indictment. Ingram v. State, 253 Ga. 622, 323 S.E.2d 801 (1984), cert. denied, 473 U.S. 911, 105 S. Ct. 3538, 87 L. Ed. 2d 661 (1985). Underrepresentation of certain groups in grand jury foreman position. - Underrepresentation over a period of years of one or more groups in the office of grand jury foreman provided no ground for reversal of a conviction ob-

tained by a properly constituted traverse jury in view of the method by which the jury foreman was selected from the membership of the grand jury. Spivey v. State, 253 Ga. 187, 319 S.E.2d 420 (1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1132, 105 S. Ct. 816, 83 L. Ed. 2d 809 (1985). Woman as jury foreperson. - In county where by tradition the grand jurors had selected their forepersons, fact that no woman had served as a foreperson of a county grand jury during the preceding ten years did not prove discrimination in selection of grand jurors and forepersons. Moss v. State, 250 Ga. 368, 297 S.E.2d 459 (1982). Power to administer oath and examine witnesses. - This section does

not confer exclusive or mandatory power upon foreman to administer oath or to examine witnesses. Johnson v. State, 177 Ga. 881, 171 S.E. 699 (1933). Oath required. - Witnesses testifying before grand jury must be administered an oath, and the grand jury cannot return a true bill except upon the testimony of a witness to whom the statutory oath has been administered. Reaves v. State, 242 Ga. 542, 250 S.E.2d 376 (1978). When witnesses properly sworn. - If appointment of foreman by the court is lawful, and foreman administered an oath to witnesses, then the witnesses were sworn according to law. Johnson v. State, 177 Ga. 881, 171 S.E. 699 (1933). Witness need not be sworn by or before open court. Danforth v. State, 75 Ga. 614, 58 Am. R. 480 (1885). Failure to swear witness waived by joinder of issue. Nixon v. State, 121 Ga. 144, 48 S.E. 966 (1904). Testimony of district attorney as to swearing witness and oath. - Solicitor general (now district attorney) may be compelled to testify as to how witness sworn and oath administered. Switzer v. State, 7 Ga. App. 7, 65 S.E. 1079 (1909). Grand jury need not be resworn. - Grand jury properly summoned, sworn, and charged to serve during a particular term of the court may recess and reconvene as the grand jury sees fit to conduct the grand jury’s business in the course of that term, and need not be resworn or recharged by the court during that term. State v. Grace, 263 Ga. 220, 430 S.E.2d 583 (1993). Duty of juror to inform fellow jurors. - It is the duty of a grand juror to bring to the attention of the juror’s fellows any matter that has come to the juror’s knowledge or which might be given in the charge. Groves v. State, 73 Ga. 205 (1884). Failure of grand jury to keep secret the grand jury’s proceedings does not violate any rights of the defendant; for this provision of the law is not prescribed for the benefit of those who may be accused of a crime, but is for the protection

of public morals and to prevent violators of the law from knowing that the violators are being investigated and thus have an opportunity to conceal evidence. Howard v. State, 60 Ga. App. 229, 4 S.E.2d 418 (1939). Indictment by grand jurors who were sworn by disqualified judge. - Indictment returned by grand jurors who were sworn by a judge who was disqualified to try the case will not be quashed. Cabaniss v. State, 8 Ga. App. 129, 68 S.E. 849 (1910). Motion to quash indictment properly denied. - Defendant failed to show that the trial court erred in refusing to quash the indictment because when the grand jury bailiff returned the indictment in open court during the regular business hours the grand jury’s term had not expired, and the grand jury had not been discharged, but instead, the members of the grand jury had temporarily recessed and would meet again later in the term. Walker v. State, 310 Ga. App. 223, 713 S.E.2d 413 (2011). Conviction by trial jury rendered harmless any error in charging decision. - Because the defendant did not raise the issue of any grand jury irregularity until after the defendant was convicted at trial by a jury, the trial jury’s verdict rendered harmless any conceivable error in the charging decision that might have flowed from the presence of the district attorney or a member of the district attorney’s staff during the grand jury’s deliberations and voting. Colon v. State, 275 Ga. App. 73, 619 S.E.2d 773 (2005). Cited in Taylor v. State, 44 Ga. App. 64, 160 S.E. 667 (1931); McDuffie v. Perkerson, 178 Ga. 230, 173 S.E. 151 (1933); Maynard v. Readdick, 128 Ga. App. 368, 196 S.E.2d 688 (1973); Brown v. State, 129 Ga. App. 713, 200 S.E.2d 924 (1973); Creamer v. State, 150 Ga. App. 458, 258 S.E.2d 212 (1979); McClendon v. May, 37 F. Supp. 2d 1371 (S.D. Ga. 1999); Kenerly v. State, 311 Ga. App. 190, 715 S.E.2d 688 (2011).

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Reasons for secrecy are inapplicable to grand jury’s civil duties. - Reasons supporting the policy of grand jury secrecy relate to a grand jury’s historic

criminal investigatory role, and none of these reasons is relevant to the performance of civil duties by a grand jury. 1980 Op. Att’y Gen. No. U80-44.

RESEARCH REFERENCES Am. Jur. 2d. - 38 Am. Jur. 2d, Grand Jury, §§ 24, 25. 47 Am. Jur. 2d, Jury, § 191 et seq.

C.J.S. - 38A C.J.S., Grand Juries, §§ 61, 62. 50A C.J.S., Juries, § 517 et seq.