To return an indictment, twelve (12) or more Grand Jurors must agree. After an indictment is returned, at the request of a Defendant, a transcript of the Grand Jury proceedings is made available. Following the proceedings, a stenographer record is made of all testimony, comments by the prosecuting attorney and all colloquy between prosecuting attorneys, witnesses, or members of the Grand Jury. The stenographer is also present to record the proceedings. These rules indicate that no person other than the Grand Jurors, the Prosecutor, the Clerk of the Grand Jury, along with witnesses under examination, may be present while the Grand Jury is in session. Rules 3:6 governs Grand Juries in New Jersey. At a preliminary hearing, a lower court judge will listen to arguments from both sides before determining whether or not the case should proceed to a criminal trial (aka held for trial.) In a state like Pennsylvania where a grand jury and an indictment isn’t required, probable cause to charge a defendant is determined at a preliminary hearing. If Watson’s case had occurred in a state like Pennsylvania, he would have gone through a preliminary hearing. Watson is now suspended for at least 6 games despite maintaining his innocence and the two grand juries finding that there was insufficient evidence for any of the 24 alleged sexual assault cases to go to trial. Grand Juries have received a lot of attention lately mostly because two Texas Grand Juries failed to return indictments (no bill) against current Cleveland Brown Quarterback Deshaun Watson. These are otherwise known as indictable offenses in New Jersey. These states all require a grand jury for all serious crimes such as aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, most illegal gun and firearm offenses, and all homicides. The Garden State is one of 23 jurisdictions that exclusively employs this type of criminal prosecution system and the others are the following: Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. New Jersey, unlike Pennsylvania, maintains an indictment system under its crimes code. What states use grand juries in criminal prosecutions?
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