Title 29, Judicial Procedure, Criminal

1. The state may challenge the panel of a grand jury or an individual grand juror at any time before the grand jury is impaneled and sworn. 2. A challenge to the panel may be asserted by the state upon the ground only that the grand jurors were not selected according to law. 3. A…

A challenge to the panel or to an individual grand juror may be oral or in writing and must be tried to the court.

The court shall allow or disallow a challenge to the panel of a grand jury or to an individual grand juror, and the clerk shall enter its decision upon the minutes.

Whenever a challenge to the panel or to an individual grand juror is allowed, the court shall make an order to the jury commission to summon without delay a sufficient number of persons to complete or to form a grand jury.

If a challenge to the panel is allowed, the grand jury must be discharged in which event the judge may order another grand jury to be summoned and convened.

At any time prior to pleading to the indictment, the person against whom an indictment has been found and presented may move the court to dismiss the indictment upon the ground that the jurors were not selected or impaneled according to law.

When the grand jury is completed, the court shall appoint one of the jurors to be foreman and another to act as foreman in case of the absence of the foreman.

After the grand jury is impaneled and sworn, the court shall charge the jurors concerning the offenses that may be considered by them or that are likely to come before them, and concerning their duties as prescribed by law. The court, upon request of the grand jurors and at all r…

After the charge by the court, the grand jurors shall retire to a private room which must be provided for by the county commissioners and perform their duties as prescribed by law.

The grand jury, unless a competent reporter is appointed, shall appoint a member of the jury as clerk, who shall preserve minutes of all the proceedings of the jurors, and exhibits presented, except of the votes of the individual members, and of the evidence given before them. Up…

1. Unless otherwise directed by the court, the grand jury shall appoint a competent reporter who must be sworn and who shall record in shorthand or stenotype notes, the testimony given in matters before the grand jury. Whenever an indictment is returned, and if so directed by the…

Before accepting a person drawn as a grand juror, the court must be satisfied that such person is duly qualified to act as such. A person drawn as a juror may be excused for good cause by the court before the person is sworn.

All necessary expenses of the grand jury incurred in its official capacity must be paid by the state out of funds appropriated to the supreme court.

The grand jury may issue subpoenas or subpoenas duces tecum to any witness within the state. Subpoenas may also be issued by the state's attorney or prosecutor in the manner provided in the statutes or North Dakota Rules of Criminal Procedure.

Whenever the membership of a grand jury is reduced in number for any reason, after the grand jury has been impaneled, the judge may direct that the vacancy be filled, and shall so direct if necessary to maintain the minimum number required, in the same manner as the original memb…

Each grand jury impaneled within any county shall inquire into offenses against the criminal laws of the state alleged to have been committed within that county. The alleged offenses may be brought to the attention of the grand jury by the court or by any state's attorney or the …

Whenever directed by the district court, the grand jury shall inquire into: 1. The condition and management of the public prisons in the county; and 2. Willful and corrupt felonious misconduct in office of public officials of every description in the county.

Grand jurors are entitled to free access, at all reasonable times, to public prisons, and to the examination, without charge, of all public records in the county.

If a member of a grand jury knows or has reason to believe that a public offense which is triable in the county has been committed, the member shall declare such fact to the member's fellow jurors, who shall investigate the same. In such investigation, the grand juror may be swor…

1. Subject to subsection 2, the grand jury shall receive only evidence which is: a. Given by witnesses produced and sworn before the grand jury; b. Furnished by writings, material objects, or other things perceivable through the senses; or c. Contained in a deposition or transcri…

The grand jury shall weigh all the evidence submitted to it, and when it has reason to believe that there is exculpatory evidence within its reach, it shall order the evidence to be produced, and for that purpose may require the state's attorney or prosecutor to issue process for…

No person may be present at a session of the grand jury, other than the witnesses under examination, the judge while giving advice requested by the grand jury, the state's attorney or prosecutor, the attorney general, and the reporter, or interpreter, if any. No person other than…

The state's attorney or prosecutor, upon the request of the grand jurors, shall advise them regarding their duties. The state's attorney or prosecutor, at all reasonable times, may appear before them on the person's own motion for the purpose of giving the grand jurors informatio…

1. Every member of a grand jury shall keep secret whatever that member or any other grand juror may have said, or in what manner that member or any other grand juror may have voted on a matter before the jurors. 2. Matters other than the deliberations and vote of any grand juror …

A member of a grand jury or its reporter or interpreter may be required by any court to disclose the testimony of a witness examined before the grand jury for the purpose of impeachment of the witness before the court, or to disclose the testimony given before them by any person,…

A grand juror cannot be questioned for anything the grand juror may say, or any vote the grand juror may give, in a session of the grand jury, relative to a matter legally pending before the jurors, except upon a charge against the grand juror for perjury in giving the person's t…

The grand jurors shall find an indictment charging a person with the commission of an offense when all the evidence before them, taken together, is such as in their judgment would warrant a conviction by the trial jury.

An indictment cannot be found without the concurrence of at least six grand jurors. Whenever so found, it must be endorsed "a true bill" and the endorsement must be signed by the foreman of the grand jury. The names of the witnesses known to the grand jury must be endorsed thereo…

An indictment found by the grand jurors must be presented by the foreman, in their presence, to the court, and must be filed with the clerk.

Whenever an indictment is found and presented against a person, the proceedings prescribed in chapter 29-12 govern when necessary to secure the person's appearance before the court.

Upon the completion of the business before them, or whenever the court is of opinion that the public interests will not be served by further continuation of their sessions, the grand jurors must be discharged by the court.

Within five days after a first appearance before a magistrate, the person against whom an indictment has been found and presented may make a written demand to the district judge for a copy of the transcript of the testimony given before the grand jury as it relates to that person…

Any person who willfully violates any provision of this chapter is guilty of contempt of court.