Indictment
An indictment is a formal charge or accusation that a person has committed a crime, typically issued by a grand jury. In the United States, federal law mandates that no individual can be tried for a crime without an indictment, serving as a safeguard against arbitrary arrest. The grand jury's role is to review evidence in a secret proceeding to determine if there is sufficient basis to believe that a crime has occurred and that the accused may be responsible. This process is rooted in historical concerns about unjust arrests by officials, stemming from practices in English law.
While indictments are crucial at the federal level, not all states require them; some allow judges to conduct preliminary hearings to decide if charges should proceed without a grand jury. An indictment does not imply guilt, only a finding of probable cause for further legal action. Sealed indictments may be used to keep the information confidential until an arrest is made. The distinction between indictments and alternatives like informations—accusations initiated by public officials—highlights the varied legal practices across different jurisdictions in the U.S.
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Indictment
SIGNIFICANCE: American federal law and the laws of many states provide that no one may be held for trial for a crime without being indicted by a grand jury.
In some states, a defendant may be bound over for trial by a judge after a preliminary hearing without being indicted by a grand jury. The purpose of indictments is to prevent arbitrary arrest. Before arrests are made (except in a few cases of hot pursuit), impartial grand juries must secretly consider the evidence and decide whether an arrest would be justified. The indictment requirement grew out of the tendency of English officials, including the English Parliament itself, to simply arrest persons they did not like.
An indictment by a grand jury does not mean that a person is guilty. It means only that the grand jury finds compelling evidence of two things: that a crime has been committed and that there is good reason to believe that the defendant in question might have committed the crime. A regular trial before a jury or a judge, a plea of guilty, or a decision to dismiss the case must follow before the action is complete. Indictments may be sealed and opened at a later date, such as when an arrest is made.
Indictments by grand juries are not required by the US Constitution in state criminal justice systems, although many states use them. The US Supreme Court so ruled in the 1884 case of Hurtado v. California . In that case, the Court said that whatever procedure is used must afford the defendant as much protection as was provided under the old common law of England. In English common law, informations rather than indictments were used. Informations are accusations by a public official that an individual has committed a crime. The common law is no longer used as justification, but “settled usage” is, and information is “settled usage.” In 1937, Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo wrote that the Bill of Rights injunction to use indictments at the federal level was not extended to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment as many sections of the Bill of Rights were, because the Fourteenth Amendment extended only those portions of the Bill of Rights that “are of the very essence of a scheme of ordered liberty,” such as freedom of speech. Cardozo wrote that the right to indictment by a grand jury is not of that nature.
Therefore, states may and often do use informations rather than indictments to bring persons to court, and in many states it is customary for a judge at a preliminary hearing, rather than for a grand jury, to determine whether a crime has been committed and whether the defendant ought to be summoned to a trial for that crime.
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