Q: In reading the article about the grand jury in Henry County, how do you get appointed to the grand jury or elected? Is this a political appointment? Can a normal citizen work on the grand jury?
—Jim Dillon, Atlanta
A: Grand juries in Georgia are made up of U.S. citizens who are at least 18 years old and who have been a resident of their current county for at least six months.
Grand jurors are selected from a “statewide master jury list,” according to the state’s “Grand Jury Handbook.”
Elected local and state officials are not eligible to serve on a grand jury. Also, people who have held an elected position (local or state) within the previous two years, aren’t eligible, the handbook states.
Grand juries are convened to determine if “there is probable cause to believe the individual has committed a crime and should be put on trial,” the U.S. Federal Courts website, uscourts.gov, states.
If a grand jury finds there is probable cause, it will return an indictment.
“After that, the person will stand trial,” the website for the Northern District of Georgia states.
Q: What happened to the cost-saving project of consolidating some of the smaller post offices with larger neighboring ones?
—Tony V. Parrott, Fayetteville
A: Post office closures weren't included in the U.S. Postal Service's Network Rationalization Initiative, which was announced in 2011.
Mail processing centers were the focus of the plan, a “multi-year effort to balance mail processing infrastructure costs against current and anticipated mail volumes to successfully right-size the postal processing network,” a USPS spokesman told Q&A on the News in an email.
Andy Johnston with Fast Copy News Service wrote this column; Katie Tiller contributed. Do you have a question? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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