Presentments have been a hot topic lately and the court of appeals just issued a decision involving a presentment. This post explains the controversy and the significance of the recent opinion. What’s a presentment, again? According to G.S. 15A-641, a presentment is “a written accusation by a grand jury, made on its own motion and filed with a court, charging a person . . . with the commission of one or more criminal offenses.” It “does not institute criminal proceedings against any person,” but rather, obligates the District Attorney to investigate and, if appropriate, to request an indictment. Historically, presentments were issued when a grand jury organically became aware of a possible crime that it believed merited prosecution. See, e.g., Sara Sun Beale, et al., Grand Jury Law and Practice § 1:8 (2d ed. 2017 update) (stating that “[a] presentment . . . is brought on the grand jurors’ own initiative, based on facts already known to them or discovered by their investigation”); Renne B. Lettow, Note, Reviving Federal Grand Jury Presentments, 103 Yale L.J. 1333 (1994) (“A presentment is a charge the grand jury brings on its own initiative.”). In the first years of the United States, grand juries frequently returned presentments, often against public officials, and issuing presentments was considered a central function of grand juries. Lettow, supra. Indeed, early in North Carolina’s history, a presentment was itself sufficient to charge a crime – it was not necessary for the prosecutor to review the matter or to obtain an [...]
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