Indiction

“ BROWN. You are not here for worshipping God, but for breaking the Law; you do yourselves a great deal of Wrong in going on in that Discourse.
PEN. I affirm I have broken no Law, nor am I guilty of the Indictment that is laid to my Charge; and to the End the Bench, the Jury, and my self, with these that hear us, may have a more direct Understanding of this Procedure, I desire you would let me know by what Law it is you prosecute me, and upon what Law you ground my Indictment. ”

“ You, with all your arguments and your witnesses and your diffuse eloquence, have failed to prove me a magician. Could she prove it with one word? A formal indictment, written and signed before a judge, is a far more weighty document than what is written in a private letter! Why do not you prove me a magician by my own deeds instead of having recourse to the mere words of another? If your principle be followed, and whatever any one may have written in a letter under the influence of love or hatred be admitted as proof, many a man will be indicted on the wildest charges. ”

“ Then: "Mister Foreman and gentlemen of the jury," declaimed Caput in flutelike tones: "The defendant is indicted for the crime of bigamy, an offense alike repugnant to religion, civilization and to the law." ”

“ In England, I believe, the usual course is to proceed in the regular way by indictment. I mention this fact and the later statute only for their bearing upon the meaning of the exception in our law. When it is considered how contrary it is to our practice and ways of thinking for the same person to be accuser and sole judge in a matter which if he be sensitive, may involve strong personal feeling, I should expect the power to be limited by the necessities of the case 'to insure order and decorum in their presence' as it is stated in Ex parte Robinson, 19 Wall. ”

“ Judge. The errantest thief may say, he is not satisfied in his conscience.
J. C. My case is not theirs, yet they have their accusers; and may not I call for mine? And therefore call for them, for you ought to do so: as Christ said to the woman, Woman, where are thine accusers? So you ought to say to me, Man, where are thine accusers?—Interrupted.
Judge. Your indictment is your accuser, and the grand jury have found you guilty, because you did not swear: what say you, Mr. Crook, are you guilty, or not guilty? ”

“ The words of the existing statute are too plain to be misunderstood. The defendant, if indicted for treason, is to have delivered to him, three days before the trial, 'a copy of the indictment, and a list of the jury, and of the witnesses to be produced on the trial for proving the indictment;' and, if indicted for any other capital offense, is to have 'such copy of the indictment and list of the jurors and witnesses' two days before the trial. ”

“ The principle that there is a presumption of innocence in favor of the accused is the undoubted law, axiomatic and elementary, and its enforcement lies at the foundation of the administration of our criminal law. ”

“ It is elementary that an indictment, in order to be good under the Federal Constitution and laws, shall advise the accused of the nature and cause of the accusation against him, in order that he may meet the accusation and prepare for his trial, and that, after judgment, he may be able to plead the record and judgment in bar of further prosecution for the same offense. ”

“ But now suppose that you have been arrested, suppose that a grand jury has investigated the charge against you, has heard witnesses, and has returned an indictment. You are then brought up before the court, and the indictment is read to you. This indictment I will explain to you more fully later. When the indictment is read you are then required to say whether you are “guilty” or “not guilty”. If you have committed the crime charged, it may be advisable to plead guilty and ask for the mercy of the court in the punishment which he may impose. Courts usually temper justice with mercy. ”

“ But supposing, by the way, that in every prosecution for a libel, the writing, or publishing, were unquestionable, and the sense of the court were to be taken on the criminality of either by demurrer (which would, as things now go, save much time, trouble, and expence, as the rule of law at present stands constructed by the Judges, unestablished on the noble basis of the common law, lex terræ, or statute law) a man has nothing to depend on but their discretion, and the partial use of the jargon of inuendos, averments, and intendments for his acquittal. ”

“ Juries have for centuries made the basic decisions between guilt and innocence and between criminal responsibility and legal insanity upon the basis of the facts, as revealed by all the evidence, and the law, as explained by instructions detailing the legal distinctions, the placement and weight of the burden of proof, the effect of presumptions, the meaning of intent, etc. ”

“ Even if the paraphernalia of justice,—the judge, and the jury, and the lawyers, could be induced to declare her innocent before all men, must she not confess her guilt to him,—to that one,—for whose verdict alone she cared? ”

“ In the United States prosecution or indictment by a grand jury is the rule: the form of indictment is the same, substituting the state or commonwealth of the United States for references to the king, and the conclusions “against the form of the statute” and “against the peace” are still in use. ”

“ This is the point from which we start; each indictment is now a bill of pains and penalties, a special law naming the criminal and prescribing his punishment. A second step is accomplished, when the multiplicity of crimes compels the legislature to delegate its powers to particular Quæstiones or Commissions, each of which is deputed to investigate a particular accusation, and if it be proved, to punish the particular offender. ”

“ What strange, dark fancies are connected with the very language of common-law indictments, when grand juries find under oath that the offence complained of has been committed "at the instigation of the Devil"! ”

“ If, however, I seem to be anxious to rebut charges which are merely frivolous and foolish, the blame must be laid at the door of those, to whom such accusations, in spite of their triviality, can only bring disgrace. I am not to blame. Ridiculous as these charges may be, their refutation cannot but do me honour.
4. To begin then, only a short while ago, at the commencement of the indictment, you heard them say, 'He, whom we accuse in your court, is a philosopher of the most elegant appearance and a master of eloquence not merely in Latin but also in Greek!' What a damning insinuation! ”

“ It is essential to a valid indictment that it should set forth the offence, with such particulars of time, place, and person, that the accused may know the nature of the charge, and be able to prepare to meet it. ”

“ With rare exceptions, offences consist of more than one ingredient, and in some cases of many, and the rule is universal that every ingredient of which the offence is composed must be accurately and clearly alleged in the indictment, or the indictment will be bad, and may be quashed on motion, or the judgment may be arrested, or be reversed on error. ”

“ If in former trials you have obstructed justice by slander of the dead, by falsely affirming the innocence of the guilty, by cheating in argument, by deceiving the court whom you are sworn to serve and assist, and have done all this for personal gain, do you expect, and is it reasonable for you to expect, the jury in this case to believe you? ”

“ But far different, my lords, are the circumstances of those who are now invited to throng the courts of justice, and stun us with depositions and discoveries. They are men supposed criminal by the indemnity which is offered them; and by the nature of their crimes it is made at least probable, that they are in daily hazard of discovery and punishment; from which they are summoned to set themselves free for ever, by accusing a man of whom it has not been yet proved that he can legally be called to a trial. ”

“ If any person, who is indicted for an offence, shall on his trial be acquitted upon the ground of a variance between the indictment and the proof, or upon any exception to the form or to the substance of the indictment, he may be arraigned again on a new indictment, and may be tried and convicted for the same offence, notwithstanding such former acquittal.' Similar statutes have been passed in other states. ”

“ Indictments differ from presentments, which are made by the grand jury on their own motion and their own knowledge; and from informations, which are instituted on the suggestion of a public officer without the intervention of a grand jury. ”

“ The indictment against the defendants is no evidence of their guilt, but is merely a formal charge for the purpose of putting them upon trial. You ought to commence the investigation of this case with a presumption that the defendants, and each of them are innocent of the crime of which they are accused, and you should act upon this presumption throughout your consideration of the evidence. ”

“ The indictment isn't any more than so much blank paper. I insist, your Honor, that no such indictment was ever returned before on land or sea. Some men may pull one on me, but I don't think so—I don't think so. You might just as well indict a man for being no good—and we could find a lot of them down here probably and if we couldn't I could bring them down from Chicago—but only a man is held to answer for a specific thing and he must be told what that specific thing is before he gets into court. ”

“ In the case of bribery, my lords, the person accused has the privilege, if he be innocent, of prosecuting his accuser for perjury, and is therefore in less danger of being harassed by a false indictment. ”

“ In speaking of the necessity of greater particularity of statement, the court said, (page 558:) 'It is an elementary principle of criminal pleading that where the definition of an offense, whether it be at common law or by statute, includes generic terms, it is not sufficient that the indictment shall charge the offense in the same generic terms as in the definition; but it must state the species,-it must descend to particulars. ”

“ If the jury is contumacious, if, whilst they confess their entire conviction of the truth of the fact charged in the indictment, they deny the legal doctrine and acquit the prisoner, the Court is without redress. They may bully and look big—there is no help. ”

“ Could anybody defend himself if he was charged upon an indictment for obtaining money under false pretences, the allegation in the indictment being that he pretended that there was a house so near completion that it only required a week’s work upon it, by saying that he never represented that there was a house there at all? ”

“ That in all prosecutions and indictments for libel, the truth may be given in evidence; and if it shall appear to the jury that the libel is true, and published with good motives and for justifiable ends, the truth shall be a justification; and the jury shall be the judges of the law and facts.
Section 16. That no person shall be put to answer any criminal charge, but by presentment, indictment or impeachment.
Section 17. That no conviction shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture of estate. ”

“ To require a citizen to undertake a long journey across the continent to face his accusers, and to incur the expense of taking his witnesses, and of employing counsel in a distant city, involves a serious hardship, to which he ought not to be subjected if the case can be tried in a court of his own jurisdiction.
3. The third assignment-that the indictment charges no offense against the United States-requires a statement of its substance. ”

“ Nor is the trial or conviction of an actor indispensable to furnish a right to try the person who aids or abets the act; each in the eye of the law is deemed guilty a principal. In the present indictment, the offence is in the third and fourth counts laid by aiding and abetting, in the very terms of the act of Congress. ”

“ I have the honour to attend your lordships on this occasion as attorney-general for her majesty, to lay before you the circumstances of the case upon which you will be called to pronounce judgment, without any object or wish on my part, except that I may humbly assist your lordships in coming to a right conclusion upon it, according to its merits. An indictment has{610} been found against a peer of the realm by a grand jury of his country, charging him with a felony, the punishment of which is transportation or imprisonment. ”

“ Hereafter I will notice some things that have been proved outside of the indictment. Nearly every petition and letter is admitted to have been honest and genuine. Those that have been attacked were misdescribed in the indictment and the evidence has shown that they were substantially true. There is a fatal variance between the allegation and the proof so far as these charges in the indictment are concerned, and they are left absolutely without a prop. ”

“ While we should hold an indictment to be insufficient that did not charge in definite language all the elements constituting the offense, we have no desire to be hypercritical or to require the pleader to unduly repeat as to every incident of the offense the allegation of deliberateness and premeditation. ”

“ My instruction to you is, that language addressed to persons who immediately afterwards commit an offence, actually intended by the speaker to incite those addressed to commit it, and adapted thus to incite them, is such a counselling or advising to the crime as the law contemplates, and the person so inciting others is liable to be indicted as a principal. ”