Indictment

The formal document by which the state sets out the claim that a person has committed a crime. It is on the basis of an indictment that an accused person must stand trial.

An indictment will state the relevant alleged facts and set out the nature of the alleged crime.

In the USA, the indictment is the formal accusation returned by a Grand Jury, that charges a person with a felony.

It is on the basis of an indictment that an accused person must stand trial; being the accusation of the commission of a crime. It is not evidence of a crime; merely an allegation thereof, the initiating document of a criminal trial.

Justice Meredith wrote, in R v Goodfellow:

"... every indictment ought to contain a complete description of such facts and circumstances as constitute the crime without consistency or repugnancy."

In Halsbury's Laws of England:

"An indictment is a written accusation preferred before the Crown Court, signed by the proper officer of the Court, and charging one or more persons with the commission of one or more indictable offences."

 

It is so essential in law that an accused person know fully the charge against him or her, so that they can prepare and face it in Court, that an error on the face or form of an indictment may lead to a successful motion by the accused to quash the indictment, thereby setting the accused free subject to the prosecutor's right, in limited cases, to correct and reissue the indictment.

REFERENCES:

• Halsbury's Laws of England, 4th Edition, Volume 11(3) (London: LexisNexis-Butterworths, 2006).
• R v Goodfellow 11 Ontario Law Reports 359 (1906)