Dallas County DA Says Prosecutors Will No Longer Make Recommendations To Grand Juries

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot announced Tuesday, Jan. 25, a change in the way prosecutors make cases to grand juries.

Creuzot's office explained in a news release, the prior policy by a previous administration allowed prosecutors in the majority of criminal cases to make recommendations to grand juries of whether or not they should vote to indict or not indict, while not making any recommendations in cases where police officers or other public officials were potential defendants.

DA Creuzot now mandates prosecutors presenting cases to grand juries not make a recommendation of whether to indict or no-bill cases.

"This revised policy requires that the facts and evidence will speak for themselves no matter the type of case, and ensures consistent handling of each case presented to the grand jury by his office," the news release stated.

"We are striving for consistency across the board," DA John Creuzot said. "We will provide guidance as to what the elements of the crime are and whether we think the elements are met. We will answer any questions from the grand jury regarding the presentation of the case. It will be up to the grand jury to exercise their discretion--which is what they are here to do--without influence from our office."

A Texas grand jury is composed of twelve citizens randomly selected by a district court judge and summoned in the same manner as panels for the trial of civil cases in the district courts.

Nine of twelve votes are required to indict a case.