During the November months, it’s customary for many Americans to look back on the year and reflect on what they are thankful for – whether that be friends, family, etc. As a criminal defense attorney, one of the things I am most grateful for in our system of justice is grand juries, and the availability of submitting a grand jury packet.
Grand jury packets are a collection of written arguments and exhibits that can be submitted by defense counsel to the DA’s office, pre-indictment. The defense attorney will ask the assigned grand jury prosecutor to submit the paper arguments to the grand jury. There are typically 13 grand jurors, and so 13 packets are disseminated and the grand jurors have an opportunity to review the arguments before deciding whether to indict the case or not. Because any felony can only proceed forward if it is indicted by a grand jury, grand jury packets remain an option to terminate any felony offense before it begins. They are a powerful weapon in a criminal defense attorney’s arsenal here in Texas – particularly in Dallas County.
I recently secured a “No-Bill” (the term used when the grand jury terminates the prosecution by opting not to indict the case) on a murder charge in Dallas County by submitting a grand jury packet to the DA’s Office and asking them to distribute the packets to the grand jury. The case involved a drug deal gone bad, with an attempted robbery.
My client was a low-level marijuana dealer that was still in high school. One day he got a request on his social media page from a random person asking to buy a semi-large amount of weed. Because my client only ever had so much product on his person, he had to call his distributor to get more weed for the sale. The distributor agreed, but insisted on going with my client to ensure the safety of the product and the transaction. The distributor picked up my client and drove him towards the arranged meeting location. When they arrived, a nervous looking guy came up to the window and asked to examine a sample of the weed. The distributor presented him with a small sample. Once that happened, the guy turned over his shoulder and two masked men came out from behind a dumpster and pointed their guns and the distributor (who was in the driver’s seat) and my client (who was in the passenger seat). The distributor quickly pulled out a pistol from his jacket and shot one of the masked men pointing a gun at him. He then peeled out of the parking lot and dropped my client off at his house.
Soon after this occurred, a detective showed up at my client’s house asking questions. My client was reluctant to get involved and so he didn’t answer any of the detective’s questions. Besides, my client and I agreed, they never apprehended the distributor and we suspected he was long gone to Mexico by now. Maybe because he was mad, or maybe because he was trying to force my client into giving up information, the detective arrested my client for murder. He then hired me.
I told my client that he had a great self-defense argument, but that we may need to wait to argue self-defense for the trial court level, because getting a murder case no-billed by a grand jury was a pretty tall order. He understood, but asked me to try the grand jury packet option all the same – even though it involved a higher fee and retainer. I took my client’s statement of the events and also subjected him to a polygraph test that indicated he was being truthful with his version of the events. I submitted our arguments and exhibits to the grand jury in a packet. I argued that the distributor would have a great self-defense argument against an attempted robbery, and he was the shooter in this case. My client didn’t even shoot anyone. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Guess what? The grand jury agreed – and they no-billed the case. My client won his murder case before it even began. If you have been charged with murder in Dallas County, give Hindieh Law a call. We’re ready to equip you with the tools you need to take back in
