What is the burden of proving malice against a defendant at a grand jury hearing?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from Roads v. Superior Court In and For Siskiyou County, 275 Cal.App.2d 593, 80 Cal.Rptr. 169 (Cal. App. 1969):

'It follows that to require the prosecution, as petitioner urges, to present specific proof of 'malice aforethought' at the grand jury hearing, over and above its fundamental showing of the killing of the victim by the defendant, would in effect place a greater burden on the prosecution at the accusatory stage than at the trial itself. None of petitioner's arguments compels us to reach such an anomalous result. First, petitioner invokes those cases where an indictment or information has been set aside because of a total lack of evidence before the grand jury or magistrate of one of the necessary elements of the crime charged. (Citations.) But in no case so holding was the missing element one which, as here, arose by implication of law from the nature of the criminal act itself. By contrast, accusations of murder have been upheld in a number of cases without specific evidence of malice, upon a showing of the fact of the homicide and the accused's participation in it.' (Jackson v. Superior Court, supra, 62 Cal.2d at pp. 525--527, 42 Cal.Rptr. at pp. 841--842, 399 P.2d at pp. 377--388.)

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