Processes such as the grand jury indictment, preliminary hearing, and arrest all focus on understanding whether some probable cause highlights that the defendant committed an offense and should undergo a court trial. These three processes, however, serve different purposes despite the repetitive nature of their application before a court decision is made. An arrest is the first process in criminal prosecution, often conducted by a police officer. An officer can arrest an individual based on three scenarios. Firstly, an arrest is performed if the police officer believes that an individual has committed a crime ( Schmalleger, 2017) . Secondly, an arrest is conducted if the arresting officer has possible cause to think that the arrestee has committed a crime. Thirdly, an arrest occurs if the police officer has an official arrest warrant. Suspects are often booked after making the arrest, before the arrestee is placed in custody. Preliminary hearing, also known as probable cause hearing, evidentiary hearing, and preliminary examination, refers to a proceeding that follows the filing of criminal complaint by the prosecutor ( Sheldon, 2018) . The proceeding determines the level of evidence required to issue a trial. Preliminary hearings often involve the defendant seeking assistance from an attorney. Fundamentally, it describes an adversarial process involving the counsel questioning witnesses before the two parties make arguments ( Sheldon, 2018) . Following the arguments, the judge makes the final findings of the possible cause. In the United States’ criminal justice system, grand juries denote a group of individuals empowered by the state or federal government to perform legal proceedings involving the investigation of possible criminal conduct upon which criminal charges are required ( Goldstein & Witzel, 2019) . Compared with the preliminary hearing, a grand jury indictment only involves hearing from the prosecutor. The jury may also call their special witnesses or request further assessments of the case before deciding on the sufficiency of the evidence to indict the arrestee. Preliminary hearing and grand jury indictment are closely related compared to arrests. Arrests can entail minor and major offenses ( Schmalleger, 2017) . Grand jury indictment and preliminary hearings only involve major offenses, which do not require issuing citations to the arrested person to appear for hearing at a later date. The individuals or officials involved in the three processes also differ. For example, police officers control the case details in an arrest. Grand jury indictments, on the other hand, involve presentation of evidence from the prosecutor. Finally, preliminary hearings entail counsel questioning witnesses before making arguments to present to the judge. An arrest, grand jury indictment, and preliminary hearing are similar in only one aspect; that is, they are performed before trial to determine if an individual actually committed a crime, and if the crime warrants trial. Arguably, preliminary hearings and grand jury indictments act as pre-trial motions, although the latter does not involve decision-making from people who understand the law. Often, grand jury members are individuals assigned by the federal or state government to perform the investigation without considerable understanding of the law. As examples of pre-trial motions, preliminary hearings and grand jury indictments are established by the defense and prosecution to establish evidence, testimony, and issues that are required during trial. An arrest can be performed without involving an attorney or prosecutor because minor offenses will involve police citations for hearing is the offense warrants a court trial.
References
Goldstein, H. W., & Witzel, S. M. (2019). Grand jury practice . Law Journal Press.
Schmalleger, F. (2017). Criminal justice . Pearson.
Sheldon, D. (2018). Unjust Incarceration: Problems facing Pennsylvania's preliminary hearing and how to reform it. Duq. L. Rev. , 56 , 169.
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