Professor Bruce Green, Louis Stein Chair and director of the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics, shared his expert opinion with The Washington Post regarding grand jury proceedings. He noted that grand juries have different functions and procedures than trial juries.
They hear evidence and only weigh whether criminal charges are warranted, which involves a lower standard of proof than what is required in court, said Bruce A. Green, a law professor at Fordham University and a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York.
“Their work is one-sided, in the sense that they only consider evidence presented by the prosecutor, or that they themselves request,” Green said.
The prosecutor has “a very pivotal role,” Green said. “The prosecutor is the legal adviser to the grand jury. There’s nobody else there to substitute for the prosecutors in those roles.”