CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- The Mecklenburg County grand jury that indicted a Charlotte police officer last week in the shooting of an unarmed man also heard 275 other cases during its four-hour workday.
That pace of hearing and voting on a case every 52 seconds has some attorneys questioning whether grand juries can serve an important role in the judicial process. The grand jury handed up indictments in every case.
Raleigh attorney Joe Cheshire told The Charlotte Observer (http://bit.ly/1ikYAZs ) that shows the grand jury process is useless because it simply agrees with prosecutors.
But University of North Carolina law professor Richard Myers says having a grand jury makes prosecutors act more carefully.
Police officer Randall Kerrick was indicted on a voluntary manslaughter charge a week after a different grand jury refused to indict him.
