ABSTRACT
A grand jury consists of a group of individuals summoned and sworn in by a court and charged with the responsibility to ascertain if there is sufficient evidence to justify going forward with a criminal trial. If a grand jury determines that the prosecutor has presented enough evidence to warrant a trial, it issues an indictment, also referred to as a true bill. An alternative to a grand jury in some states is a preliminary hearing at which a judge evaluates the evidence presented by the prosecutor and decides if a trial should take place. New York Governor William Cosby sought to have Zenger-the publisher of the New York Weekly Journal, a paper highly critical of the governor and his administra-tion-indicted by a grand jury for publishing seditious libels. When the first grand jury declined to indict Zenger, a second grand jury was summoned.
