David Cantor explains what a Grand Jury is in Arizona

A Grand Jury usually involves more serious cases in Arizona. The process is that the prosecutor will convene a secret grand jury and the main officer will come in and read the police reports and hearsay into evidence. The jurors will then determine and vote on whether or not to bring charges.

There must be 11 jurors in a grand jury to form a quorum. If there is less than 11 jurors, they can’t vote on that day. Of the 11, only 9 of them need to say that they find probable cause to file charges. Normally, there are 15 people on a standard grand jury.

Very often our firm will contact the prosecutor with a letter that states that we’d like them to submit exculpatory evidence to the grand jury that shows that our client did not commit this crime. We also tell the prosecutor that our client would like to show up and make a statement to the grand jury if they would like to hear from our client.

Once the letter is sent to the prosecutor, they are obligated to hand over the documents to the jury and tell the grand jury that our client would like to testify. Many times the prosecutor will contact us and bring our client in to testify. Very often this resulted in no charges being brought.

If you are in the pre-charge phase and are worried there may be charges brought against you, do not hesitate to schedule a free consultation by calling (602) 307-0808. You can also use our form to send us a confidential email.