Opinion ID: 2162363
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Grand Jury Indictment State Constitutional Protection

Text: When the federal Bill of Rights was originally adopted in 1791, those first ten amendments to the United States Constitution were only a protection against action by the federal government. [11] As a consequence of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, many of the guarantees found in the federal Bill of Rights have been deemed incorporated by the Due Process Clause to provide protection against infringement by state action. [12] The United States Supreme Court has held, for example, that the right to trial by jury in a criminal proceeding in state courts is guaranteed to defendants by the Fourteenth Amendment. [13] Conversely, the Seventh Amendment guarantee of jury trials in a civil proceeding has not been held to be binding upon the states by incorporation through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. [14] The Fifth Amendment provisions relating to the grand jury have always been binding upon the federal courts. The United States Supreme Court has never held, however, that the Fifth Amendment concepts of a grand jury are applicable to the states by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporation doctrine. [15] In an opinion released only five days after Johnson's case was argued before this Court, the United States Supreme Court reiterated its 1884 holding in Hurtado v. California , noting that the Fifth Amendment requires the Federal Government to use a grand jury to initiate a prosecution and 22 states adopt a similar rule as a matter of state law. [16] Therefore, Johnson's constitutional challenge to the Superior Court's amendment of the indictment is based exclusively upon the grand jury protections in the Delaware Constitution.