Hawaii Revised Statutes Division 4. Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 612-16

(a) The court shall order one or more grand juries to be impaneled at such times as the public interest requires; provided that there shall be an annual initial impaneling not later than January 15.

(b) For the impaneling of a grand jury, the prospective jurors on a certified list of grand jurors shall be summoned and the names of those who are present, and not disqualified, exempted, or excused, shall be placed in an appropriate container from which a drawing by lot shall be conducted in order to draw a sufficient number of names to constitute a grand jury. A sufficient number of additional names on a certified list, as determined by the court, shall be drawn so that alternate grand jurors may be designated to serve as grand jurors in case of any vacancy occurring on a grand jury. The drawing shall be made in open court in the presence of the judge, no earlier than one week after a publication of notice of the time and place of drawing in a newspaper of general circulation published within the circuit for which the grand jury is drawn; provided that if there is no such newspaper, then after at least one week's posting of such notice in at least three conspicuous places in the circuit.

(c) A certificate listing the names of the grand jurors and alternate grand jurors, and stating the essential facts of the drawing, signed by the judge and attested by the clerk, shall be filed.

(d) The grand jury, being impaneled and sworn, shall be charged by the court. The alternate grand jurors shall also be sworn and charged by the court, but shall not be impaneled. In charging the grand jurors and alternate grand jurors, the court shall give them such information as it may deem proper as to their duties and as to the law pertaining to such cases as may come before them. The court may further charge the grand jurors and alternate grand jurors from time to time, as it may deem necessary.

(e) Effective January 2, 1992, for the courts of the first circuit of the State of Hawaii, and effective January 2, 1993, for the courts of all other circuits of the State, a grand jury shall serve for a period of one year after being impaneled, unless sooner discharged by the court; provided that a grand jury may sit beyond the one-year period to complete any matter for which the grand jury was impaneled.