Allen v. Payne

WASTE, C. J., Dissenting.

I dissent.

The grand jury is a body of citizens provided for and created by the Constitution (art. I, sec. 8), impaneled and sworn to inquire of public offenses, committed or triable within the county. (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 192.) It was imported into California jurisprudence by the Constitution of 1849 (art. I, sec. 8). There is in the section no definition of the term “grand jury”. Therefore, it follows that the reference necessarily recognized an existing institution with certain accepted characteristics and prerogatives—-in other words, the grand jury known to the…