Presentment

• Author: Charles H. Whitebread
• Pages: 1991

Page 1991

A presentment is a written accusation of criminal offense prepared, signed, and presented to the prosecutor by the members of a GRAND JURY, acting on their own initiative rather than in response to a bill of INDICTMENT brought before them by the government. By returning a presentment, the grand jury forces the prosecutor to indict. The presentment procedure permits the grand jury to circumvent prosecutorial inertia or recalcitrance to initiate criminal proceedings. The grand jury's presentment power originated long before there were government prosecutors. The presentment is a descendant of the grand jury's original function: to initiate criminal proceedings by accusing those whom the grand jurors knew to have reputedly committed offenses.

CHARLES H. WHITEBREAD

(1986)

Bibliography

TESLIK, W. RANDOLPH 1975 Prosecutorial Discretion: The...