Case Name: THE PEOPLE v. W. B. EARNEST
Court: Supreme Court of California
Jurisdiction: California
Decision Date: 1872
Citations: 45 Cal. 29
Docket Number: No. 3,439
Parties: THE PEOPLE v. W. B. EARNEST.
Judges: 
Reporter: California Reports
Volume: 45
Pages: 29–30

Head Matter:
[No. 3,439.]
THE PEOPLE v. W. B. EARNEST.
Grand Jury Must be Summoned as Such.—An indictment found by a jury which was summoned as a trial jury and impaneled as a Grand Jury is illegal.
Appeal from the County Court of Butte County.
The facts are stated in the opinion.
P. 0. Hundley, for Appellant.
The Attorney General, for Respondent.

Opinion:
By the Court:
The statute (Hitt,, Secs. 3918, 3919) requires that a copy of the order of the. Court for the summoning of a Grand Jury should be delivered to the Sheriff and that it shall be the duty of that officer to summon the Grand Jury " upon the receipt of the order," etc. In this case the only order delivered to the Sheriff was an order to summon twenty-four persons to serve as trial jurors. This trial jury was subsequently impaneled by the Court as a Grand Jury and found the indictment upon which the prisoner was convicted, and his motion to set aside the indictment, duly made on that ground, was denied. Had a subpoena been issued to summon twenty-four witnesses in the case there would have been just as much authority in the Court to impanel them as a Grand Jury as to impanel this trial jury as a Grand Jury.
Judgment reversed and cause remanded, with directions to set aside the indictment and-for such further proceedings as may be proper.