Indictment | Definition, Procedures, & Facts (2024)

indictment, in the United States, a formal written accusation of crime affirmed by a grand jury and presented by it to a court for trial of the accused. The grand jury system was eliminated in England in 1933, and current law there provides for a bill of indictment to be presented to the court when the person accused has been committed to trial by a magistrate and in certain other cases.

An indictment must establish the jurisdiction of the court to try the case, provide adequate notice to the defendants of the charges against them, enable the court to pronounce judgment upon conviction, and prevent a second prosecution for the same offense (see double jeopardy). The indictment at common law was an instrument of remarkable prolixity, and formal requirements of the document and the modes of alleging elements of the offense were strictly enforced; amendments were not permitted. Modern indictments in England have been simplified as to form and language. Each charge must be in a separate count, but any number of felonies and misdemeanours may be joined in the same indictment. A defective indictment may be amended unless “the required amendments cannot be made without injustice.”

In the United States, where a grand jury indictment is required by the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution for federal prosecutions, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (1946), applicable to federal district courts, provide that the indictment “shall be a plain, concise, and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged.” No formal requirements as to commencement or conclusion are made. The federal procedure, as well as that of many states, authorizes the granting of “bills of particulars” to defendants when additional details about matters alleged in the indictment are required in the interest of justice. In the United States, as in England, the indictment may contain several counts. Each count must adequately allege a single offense. Several counts may allege different versions of the same offense, but counts alleging different offenses may be joined in the same indictment. If the offenses charged are alleged to have been committed by more than one person, all persons charged may be tried on the same indictment.

Attacks on the indictment may include assertions that a count is duplicative (i.e., charges more than one offense), that various formal errors were committed in drafting the instrument, that the language of the indictment does not sufficiently allege the material elements of the offense, and many others. Failure to raise objections to the indictment at the appropriate time ordinarily constitutes waiver of the objections except when the defects are fundamental—e.g., when there is failure to show the jurisdiction of the court or to charge an offense.

In England, crimes are classified as indictable or summary offenses. Indictable offenses include treason, felonies, and some misdemeanours. Under modern English law, crimes designated as summary offenses may be tried on indictment if the prescribed penalties include imprisonment for more than three months. In the United States the indictment is only one of three principal methods of charging offenses, the others being the information (i.e., a written accusation resembling an indictment, prepared and presented to the court by a prosecuting official) and, for petty offenses, a complaint of the aggrieved party or of a police officer.

In the United States the Fifth Amendment provides that trial of “capital or otherwise infamous” crimes be based on indictment by a grand jury. Infamous crimes have been defined as offenses punishable by death (see capital punishment) or imprisonment in a penitentiary or by hard labour. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that, while this language in the Fifth Amendment applies to federal prosecutions, it is not binding on the states. Federal courts and the states usually permit waiver of the indictment by the defendant, allowing the case to go to trial on the basis of the prosecutor’s information. Beginning in the 19th century, some states eliminated grand juries and authorized, with various regulations, the prosecution of all crimes by information. Most states retain grand juries at the discretion of the prosecutor but give the accused no right to have the charges against them reviewed by a grand jury.