Indictment

“ Then the prisoner prayed a copy of the indictment.
L.C.J. (Sir George Jeffreys) . What is this? Sure you know that is never allowed. Besides, here is as plain indictment as ever I heard; you have nothing to do but to plead to it.
Pris. My lord, I apprehend there may be matter of law arising out of the indictment, and I would humbly beg the court to assign me counsel to consider of it. Besides, my lord, I believe it was done in another case: copy of the indictment was allowed. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If a criminal intent is necessary to the crime, it must be charged in the indictment.' It is undoubted that the first ground of the demurrer filed to the indictment was broad enough to embrace this contention if it had been urged. ”

“ You see they strike every man in a peculiar way. No two minds are exactly alike. No pair of eyes distinguish exactly the same object or the same peculiarities of the objects. This is an indictment under section 5440 of the Revised Statutes, and there must not only be a conspiracy to defraud, but there must be an overt act done in pursuance of that conspiracy for the purpose of effecting the object of it. Now, then, how must these overt acts be stated in this indictment? Is the overt act a part of the crime, and must it, be described with the same particularity that you describe the offence? ”

“ An indictment [Pg 559] contains two counts: there is a demurrer [13] to each count: each demurrer is overruled, and a general judgment given that the defendant, 'for his offences aforesaid,' shall be fined and imprisoned. Is it to be said, that if he bring a writ of error, and prove one count to be bad, he shall have no relief unless he shows the other to be bad also? ”

“ If accused can admit all accusations of indictment and still be innocent, indictment is defective. Every indictment must be complete within itself, and charge a crime and every substantial element of the offense alleged to be committed. ”

“ A fatal variance. See record, page 1305. That is the end of that. The indictment is for something. You have got to follow it, and it certainly is not as hard work to write an offence against a man as it is to prove it. If they cannot write an offence, you certainly ought not to find the man guilty. Besides all that, that oath was not even impeached, it was not ever attacked. There was not a word said upon the subject except in the indictment. It was charged to be false, and not one word of evidence was offered to this jury to show that it was false. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 an indictment, although consisting of several counts, each for a distinct offense, is in law an indivisible unit, and must be treated as an entirety by the jury in making up their verdict; and such verdict, in order to be valid, must finally pass upon and dispose of all the accusations contained in the indit ment. In effect, it is claimed that, where an indictment consists of several counts, repeated trials must be had, until there is an agreement, either for acquittal or conviction, as to each and every count contained in the indictment. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Item 15, for making dockets and indexing, where no indictment is found, but the same is ignored by the grand jury, should be disallowed. 'A cause' in a criminal case is begun by filing an indictment which has been found, but not by one which has been ignored. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Now, what is the scheme of this indictment? That is to say, the scheme of this conspiracy? We want to know what we are doing. It is the great bulwark of human liberty that the charge against a man must be in writing, and must be truthfully described.
First. For the defendants, with the exception of the officers Brady and Turner, to write, and procure the writing of, fraudulent letters, communications, and applications. Now, let us be honest. Is there the slightest evidence that a fraudulent letter was ever written? ”

“ An indictment is the mode by which all treasons and felonies must be proceeded against, and by which ordinary misdemeanours are usually brought to punishment. An ex officio information is an information at the suit of the sovereign, filed by the Attorney-General, as by virtue of his office, without applying to the court where filed for leave, and without giving the defendant any opportunity of showing cause why it should not be filed. The principal difference between this form of procedure and that by indictment, consists in the manner in which the proceedings are commenced ”

“ Darrow—We claim that the indictment should set out what the offense was—what the doctrine was—what his version of the doctrine was.
Gen. Stewart—Undertake to set out the full and complete doctrine?
Mr. Darrow—Yes.
Gen. Stewart—I do not understand that to be the law. It would be impossible to frame an indictment properly under that, and no indictment can be presented. An indictment must state facts, and not conclusions of law. Course there is no conclusions of law stated here. An indictment must charge the crime with certainty and show such facts and circumstances as constitute the crime ”

“ It is true that, in order to a conviction for a minor offense, it must be an ingredient of the major and substantially included in the offense charged in the indictment, but it is clearly a matter for the state courts to determine whether in a given case an indictment is sufficient in that regard. ”

“ His friends complained to him and said: 'You had better give up your theory.' 'Can't give it up,' said the doctor. 'Don't care how many die; I have written a book and have a theory, and must sustain it.' So with the indictment of the State's Attorney. 'I have written an indictment; it is my theory and has got to be sustained, right or wrong, in spite of the law and evidence, and you give me a jury which is excited and I will get some one to swear to something, and that will be enough. My theory must be sustained.' Are you gentleman ready to violate your oaths by sustaining it? ”

“ The necessity for identifying references in the indictment to the obscene matter upon which the grand jury makes its finding is an essential part of the rule dispensing with the obligation of stating the obscene matter, in so many words, in the indictment. The reason upon which the English rule rests is that spreading in full the obscene matter is essential to protect the accused in his rights, to enable him to move to quash, or in arrest of judgment, or to present on review by error the validity or invalidity of the indictment. ”

“ A presentment, properly speaking, is an accusation made ex mero motu by a grand jury of an offence upon their own observation and knowledge, or upon evidence before them, and without any bill of indictment laid before them at the suit of the government. An indictment is a written accusation of an offence preferred to, and presented, upon oath, as true, by a grand jury at the suit of the government. Upon a presentment the proper officer of the court must frame an indictment, before the party accused can be put to answer it. ”

“ The judge objected that the charges in the indictment did not follow the language of § 97, but as he went on to consider whether the statute applied to the facts alleged, we shall deal with the latter question. Concerning the sufficiency of the indictment in other aspects, of course, we have nothing to say. ”

“ The constitution requiring that the grand jury should find the indictment, neither the court, the prosecuting officer, nor any one else has power to create the necessary averments to make that an indictment which otherwise would be no indictment at all. ”

“ In the argument at bar, however, counsel differ as to the correct construction of the indictment here under consideration, the United States contending that the conspiracy to which the indictment related concerned entries based upon preferential rights, while, on the part of the defendants in error, it is insisted that the conspiracy related to only cash entries. ”

“ The indictments, four in number, on which petitioners were tried, charge in each one all of the defendants with a conspiracy under these sections, directed against a different person in each indictment. ”

“ The allegations of fraud in conduct and motive not being supported by any averment of facts from which such fraud is necessarily inferable, the other allegations as to the transactions charged are, upon a reasonable construction, consistent with the innocence of the defendant. And indictments, in my opinion, ought not to be viewed with favor, which, by the very multitude of their counts, serve to embarrass and confuse the accused. If an offense cannot be stated in less than 100 counts of an indictment, I do not think that public justice will suffer if the indictment be dismissed. ”

“ When the indictment is found, or the information is filed, a warrant is issued for the arrest of the accused, to be brought before the court, unless he is at the time in custody, in which case an order for that purpose is made, to the end, in either case, that he may be arraigned, and plead to the indictment or information. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Are the means by which the parties conspired and agreed to defraud the United States set forth with sufficient fullness and particularity in the first count of the indictment to constitute a good count in that particular? (5) Is any overt act performed by any one of the alleged conspirators to effect the object of the conspiracy sufficiently stated in the first count of the indictment to constitute a good count in that particular? ”

“ They can try us again, they can indict us for causing death by hanging, by suffocation, by apoplexy, and also by causes unknown, and you are asked to convict under this indictment to repair the blunder of the State's Attorney. ”

“ That each of the offenses charged, alleged, and set forth in the indictment constitute a single continuous act inspired by the same intent, which is equally essential to each of the offenses charged in the three counts of said indictment, and the court erred and exceeded its jurisdiction in imposing a sentence of 15 years upon defendant. ”

“ The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. ”

“ There is a very general test applicable to all indictments. If the facts alleged be established, or admitted to be true, and their truth is consistent with the defendant's innocence, the indictment is insufficient, however full the description in other respects. Applying this well-settled doctrine to the different counts of the indictments in these cases, there will be little difficulty in determining as to their sufficiency ”

“ To fix their attention the closer to the facts which they are impannelled and sworn to try, the indictment, in cases of importance, is usually opened by the junior counsel for the crown—a proceeding, by which they are briefly informed of the charge which is brought against the accused. ”