In the United States, a citizen grand jury is a non-actionable, non-governmental organization that assumes a responsibility upon itself to accuse an individual or groups of individuals of having committed actionable crimes, in a similar aim as that of official grand juries. Such organizations have been organized by those who espouse conspiracy theories regarding certain events or the individuals who are accused by the citizen grand jury, and most citizen grand jury applications to official judiciary systems at the federal, state, or local and municipal level tend to be thrown out for lack of evidence.
Modern citizen grand juries were organized in the 2000s to accuse government officials of complicity in the September 11 attacks, and others were organized in the late 2000s and early 2010s regarding the accuracy of President Barack Obama's status as a natural-born citizen.
Some states permit citizens to request that an official grand jury initiate criminal charges. But the decision of whether to pursue criminal charges lies with the grand jury, and not the citizen who made the request.[1]
- ^ Hollingworth, Heather (May 25, 2021). "Kansas woman alleging dorm rape convenes own grand jury". Associated Press.