INDICTMENT. 



If several offenders commit the same 

 offence, though, in law, they are several 

 offences in relation to the several offend- 

 ders, yet they may be joined in one indict- 

 ment ; as if several commit a robbery or 

 murder. 



No indictment for high treason, or mis- 

 prision thereof, (except indictments for 

 counterfeiting- the King's coin, seal, signj 

 or signet,) nor any process or return 

 thereupon, shall be quashed for mis-recit- 

 ing, mis-spelling, false or improper Latin, 

 unless exception concerning the same be 

 taken, and made in the respective court 

 where the trial shall be, by the prisoner or 

 his council assigned, before any evidence 

 given in open court on such indictment ; 

 nor shall any such mis-reciting, mis-spell- 

 ing, false or improper Latin, after con- 

 viction on such indictment, be any cause 

 of stay, or arrest of judgment; but* never- 

 theless any judgment on such indictment 

 shall be liable to be reversed on writ of 

 error, as formerly. An indictment accus- 

 ing a man in general terms, without ascer- 

 taining the particular fact laid to his 

 charge, is insufficient ; for no one can 

 know what defence to make to a charge 

 which is uncertain, nor can plead it in bar 

 on abatement of a subsequent prosecu- 

 tion : neither can it appear, that the facts 

 given in evidence against a defendant, on 

 such a general accusation, are the same of 

 which the indictors have accused him; 

 nor can it judicially appear to the court 

 what punishment is proper for an offence 

 so loosely expressed. 



No indictment can be good, without 

 expressly showing some place wherein 

 the offence was committed, which must 

 appear to have been within the jurisdic- 

 tion of the court. 



There are several emphatical words of 

 art, which the law has appropriated for 

 the description of an ,offence which no 

 circumlocution will supply ; as felonious- 

 ly, in the indictment of any felony ; bur- 

 glariously, in an indictment of burglary, 

 and the like. And an indictment on the 

 black act, for shooting at any persou, must 

 charge that the offence was done wilfully 

 and maliciously. 



By 10 and 11 William, c. 23, it is enact- 

 ed that no clerk of assize, clerk of the 

 peace, or other person, shall take any 

 money of any person, bound over to give 

 evidence against atraitoror felon, forthe 

 discharge of his recognizance, nor take 

 more than two shillings for drawing any 

 bill of indictment against any such felon, 

 or pain of five pounds to the party griev- 

 ed, with full costs. And if he shall draw 

 a defective bill, he shall draw a new one 



VOL. VI. 



gratis, on the like penalty. With respect 

 to drawing indictments for other misde- 

 meanors, not being treason or felony, no 

 fee is limited by the statute, the same 

 therefore depends on the custom and an- 

 cient usage. 



Every person charged with any felony 

 or other crime, who shall on his trial be 

 acquitted, or against whom no indict- 

 ment shall be found by the grand jury, or 

 who shall be discharged by proclamation 

 for want of prosecution, shall be immedi- 

 ately set at large in open court, without 

 payment of any fee to the sheriff or gaol- 

 er; but in lieu thereof, the treasurer, on 

 a certificate signed by one of the judges 

 or justices, before whom such prisoner 

 shall have been discharged, shall pay, 

 out of the general rate of the county 

 or district, such sum as has been usually 

 paid, not exceeding thirteen shillings and 

 four-pence. 



By these words, immediately set at 

 large, the reader must not understand 

 that this actually takes place, immediately 

 after the throwing out of the bill. It is 

 usually done after the assizes or sessions 

 are over, and when the judge or justices 

 proceed to the gaol-delivery, as it is call- 

 ed. This affords an opportunity for the 

 preferring a new indictment against the 

 party, if there should be occasion ; and it 

 is upon this ground, that the detention of 

 a prisoner, after rejecting the indictment 

 by the grand jury, is countenanced. It is, 

 however, in many cases, a hardship. The 

 sheriffs of London, in A. D. 1808, Sir 

 Richard Phillips, Knt and Mr. Alderman 

 Smith, very much to their credit, endea- 

 voured to procure the judges at the Old 

 Bailey to discharge prisoners immediate- 

 ly, but the practice having long continued 

 as above stated, the judges have been 

 averse to altering it. 



Upon a certificate of an indictment be- 

 ing found, for an assult or other misde- 

 meanor, and much more for a felony, at 

 the sessions, a warrant is issued, on the 

 application of the prosecutor, to take the 

 party into custody, and he may be held to 

 bail by a justice of the peace, or a judge ; 

 and it is usual, in expectation of such a 

 warrant, to put in bail, and obtain a super- 

 sedeas to the warrant previously. This 

 was not formerly the practice, upon in- 

 dictments or informations in the court of 

 King's Bench An act has passed to ena- 

 ble the court to issue warrants, and hold 

 to bail, upon indictments or informations 

 filed. This act is principally objection- 

 able, as it may be used as the means of 

 harassing persons, prosecuted harshly 

 and vindictively by the Attorney Genera 



K k 



