What purpose does a grand jury or preliminary hearing serve in adjudicating felony offenses? Should one of these methods be abandoned? If so, which one?

When a felony case arises, an arrest or a criminal complaint is not enough to require the defendant to stand for trial. Before the defendant is required to do so, the court must conduct either a preliminary hearing or a grand jury.

A preliminary hearing occurs when a judge hears the evidence and decides whether there is sufficient evidence to require the defendant to stand trial. Otherwise, the judge must dismiss the charges. An alternative to this is the use of a grand jury. In these cases, the prosecutor presents evidence to a jury made up of members of the public, who then decide whether there is probable cause. I believe that a preliminary hearing is important and should be kept, but that a grand jury is not an institution that needs to be protected. In a grand jury, the jury is not knowledgeable of the law, and no judge is present, which makes its ruling more unreliable.