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Merged Due process in the US

Hercules56 said:
The indictment said he was transporting drugs.
The Grand Jury agreed, and charged him with transporting drugs for illegal purposes.
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The highlighted is inaccurate. Grand juries do not make judgements of guilt or innocence, they make judgements about whether there is cause to proceed to a trial. Therefore, they did not agree that he was transporting drugs. They just agreed that there was evidence that he could have been transporting drugs. They can be seen as a check on prosecutorial powers to prevent frivolous prosecution.

In order to make a judgment of guilt or innocence, they would need full evidence, which they don't get. This evidence includes explanations that counter or discredit the prosecutor's evidence. For example, Thermal's contract to remodel a house would negate the prosecutor's evidence that he was inside an empty house that did not belong to him.

Additionally, in federal cases, the prosecutor does not have to present evidence that suggests innocence:
Prosecutors present evidence of criminal activity in an attempt to convince the grand jury that criminal charges are warranted. In some states and in federal court, they don't have to present any evidence suggesting that the target is innocent. The rationale is that the defendant will have the opportunity to present this evidence at trial.

For example, if prosecutors are seeking an indictment of Jane for an armed robbery, they might offer evidence of her fingerprints at the crime scene and a suitcase of money found in her car. In some states and in federal court, they wouldn't have to tell the grand jury that she has an alibi for the robbery.
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For example, the prosecutor can say, for instance, that Garcia said he was coming from Missouri, while the car was found to have been in Texas while omitting the fact that the police reports said he stated that he was travelling from Houston Tx via Missouri.

The Prosecutor's objective at the grand jury stage is to convince them to let him proceed to trial. In some cases, the presentation may be analogous to an infomercial selling diet pills. Very selective in presentation and not subject to challenge or counterpoint. Hence the "Ham Sandwich" jokes.

People found not guilty are also indicted by grand juries.
 
Mojo said:
Again, you're failing to understand due process and the grand jury's place in it.
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I really think that's the core of the problem. I'm willing to cut Hercules some slack on actual opinions, but I think his responses reveal an overly optimistic view of what can happen and what should happen. Unfortunately we're well past the point where one can say "It can't happen here," or "that's not the way it's supposed to be," or "nobody could be that stupid." We cannot rely on checks and balances. We cannot expect integrity. We can wish for truth but we cannot expect it. A grand jury has to show it has evidence, and that the evidence is up to a certain standard, but the very fact that an indictment is not a trial is the clue to what the difference is between the standard of evidence to indict and the standard of evidence to convict. In an ideal society, where the police and prosecutors are honest and actually want justice done, we can expect these things to coincide fairly often. But the people in charge of the indictment are the people, or the instruments and creatures of the people, who have already broken the law, who have publicly revealed their ignorance of the laws they aren't just explicitly defying, the people who photoshopped fake tattoos on the suspect's hands, led by a notoriously demented criminal liar. Sure, there's still a possibility the indictment is more true than false, and a great possibility that however true that is a conviction will occur. But I believe it's misguided to take on faith the things one might once have thought to take on faith. There is no faith left.
 
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