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In the common law legal system, an indictment is a formal charge of having committed a serious criminal offence. In those jurisdictions which retain the concept of a felony, the serious crime offence would be a felony; those jurisdictions which have abolished the concept of a felony often substitute instead the concept of an indictable offence, i.e. an offence which requires an indictment. Traditionally an indictment was handed down by a grand jury, but most common law jurisdictions (with the exception of those in the United States) have abolished grand juries. Image File history File links Scale_of_justice. ...
Criminal procedure refers to the legal process for adjudicating claims that someone has violated the criminal law. ...
An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by a public officer which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual. ...
A search warrant is a written warrant issued by a judge or magistrate which authorizes the police to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a criminal offense. ...
In United States criminal law, probable cause refers to the standard by which a police officer may make an arrest, conduct a personal or property search or obtain a warrant. ...
A knock and announce warrant, in the American law of criminal procedure, requires that the officer tasked with the responsibility of executing the warrant must knock on the door of the home to be entered for a search or arrest, and to announce their purpose. ...
An exigent circumstance, in the American law of criminal procedure, allows law enforcement to enter a structure without a warrant, or if a they have a knock and announce warrant, without knocking and waiting for refusal under certain circumstances. ...
I love this law whereby police, who suspect that a crime has been committed, do a search of a persons property and confiscate any relevant evidence to the crime. ...
The Chicago Police Department arrests a man A protester is arrested during a demonstration. ...
The right to silence is a legal protection enjoyed by people undergoing police interrogation or trial in certain countries. ...
The Miranda warning is a police warning that must be given to criminal suspects in police custody in the United States before they can be asked questions relating to the commission of crimes. ...
A grand jury is a type of common law jury responsible for investigating alleged crimes, examining evidence, and issuing indictments if they believe that there is enough evidence for a trial to proceed. ...
Criminal procedure refers to the legal process for adjudicating claims that someone has violated the criminal law. ...
A statute of limitations is a statute in a common law legal system setting forth the maximum period of time, after certain events, that legal proceedings based on those events may begin. ...
A bill of attainder (also known as an act or writ of attainder) was an act of legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime, and punishing them, without benefit of a trial. ...
An ex post facto law (from the Latin for from something done afterward) or retroactive law (or retrospective law) is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of acts committed or the legal status of facts and relationships that existed prior to the enactment of the law. ...
Criminal jurisdiction is a term used in the law of criminal procedure to describe the power of a court to hear a case brought by the state accusing a criminal defendant of a violation of the law of the geographic area in which the court is located. ...
Extradition is a formal process by which a criminal suspect held by one government is handed over to another government for trial or, if the suspect has already been tried and found guilty, to serve his or her sentence. ...
An inquisitorial system is a legal system where the court or a part of the court is actively involved in determining the facts of the case, as opposed to an adversarial system where the role of the court is solely that of an impartial referee between parties. ...
The adversarial system (or adversary system) of law is the system of law, generally adopted in common law countries, that relies on the skill of the different advocates representing their partys positions and not on some neutral party, usually the judge, trying to ascertain the truth of the case. ...
Arraignment is a common law term for the formal reading of a criminal complaint, in the presence of the defendant, to inform him of the charges against him. ...
In both criminal and civil trials in the United States, a plea of nolo contendere means that the defendant neither admits nor disputes the charge. ...
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case in which a prosecutor and a defendant arrange to settle the case against the defendant. ...
Headline text The rights of the accused is a class of rights in that apply to a person in the time period between when they are formally accused of a crime and when they are either convicted or acquitted. ...
The Right to a fair trial is an essential right in all countries respecting the rule of law. ...
Presumption of innocence is a legal right that the accused enjoys in criminal trials in many modern nations. ...
A jury trial is a trial in which the judge of the facts, as opposed to the judge of the law, is a jury, made up of citizens who are usually randomly selected and are generally not legal professionals. ...
In criminal law, the right to a speedy trial can be used as either a procedural defense or a substantive defense in which a defendant argues that they should not be held criminally liable for actions which broke the law, because the prosecuting attorney failed to bring the case to...
For alternative meanings of habeas corpus, see habeas corpus (disambiguation). ...
Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court in order to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail (skipping bail, or jumping bail, is also illegal). ...
In United States constitutional law, the exclusionary rule is a legal principle holding that evidence collected or analyzed in violation of the U.S. Constitution is not admissible for a criminal prosecution in a court of law (that is, it cannot be used in a criminal trial). ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Right to silence. ...
Double jeopardy (also called autrefois acquit meaning already acquitted) is a procedural defense (and, in many countries such as the United States, Canada and India, a constitutional right) that forbids a defendant from being tried a second time for a crime, after having already been tried for the same crime. ...
In law, a verdict indicates the judgment of a case before a court of law. ...
In law, a sentence forms the final act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. ...
In criminal law, an acquittal is the legal result of a verdict of not guilty, or some similar end of the proceeding that terminates it with prejudice without a verdict of guilty being entered against the accused. ...
A mandatory sentence is a judicial decision setting the punishment to be inflicted on a person convicted of a crime where judicial discretion is limited by law. ...
A suspended sentence is a legal construct. ...
Parole can have different meanings depending on the context. ...
Probation is the suspension of a prison or jail sentence - the criminal who is on probation has been convicted of a crime, but instead of serving prison time, has been found by the Court to be amenable to probation and will be returned to the community for a period in...
Under British criminal law, a tariff is the minimum period that a person serving an indefinite prison sentence must serve before that person becomes eligible for parole. ...
Life licence is a term used in the British criminal justice system for the conditions under which a prisoner sentenced to life in jail may be released. ...
In the Canadian legal system, the Dangerous Offender designation allows the courts to impose an indefinite sentence on a convicted person, regardless of whether the crime carries a life sentence or not. ...
The statement that the government shall not inflict cruel and unusual punishment for crimes is found in the English Bill of Rights signed in 1689 by William of Orange and Queen Mary II who were then the joint rulers of England following the Glorious Revolution of 1688. ...
It has been suggested that Capital punishment debate be merged into this article or section, because the split violates the Wikipedia:Content forking guideline. ...
An execution warrant is a warrant which authorizes the execution or capital punishment of an individual. ...
Criminal law (also known as penal law) is the body of common law that punishes criminals for committing offences against the state. ...
The law of evidence governs the use of testimony (e. ...
Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the process that courts will follow when hearing cases of a civil nature (a civil action). These rules govern how a lawsuit or case may be commenced, what kind of service of process is required, the types of pleadings or...
This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ...
A felony, in many common law legal systems, is the term for a very serious crime; misdemeanors are considered to be less serious. ...
In many common law jurisdictions (e. ...
A grand jury is a type of common law jury responsible for investigating alleged crimes, examining evidence, and issuing indictments if they believe that there is enough evidence for a trial to proceed. ...
In Australia
In Australia, an indictment is issued by government official (the Attorney-General, the Director of Public Prosecutions, or one of their subordinates). A magistrate then holds a committal hearing, which decides whether the evidence is serious enough to commit the person to trial. In most common law jurisdictions, the Attorney General or Attorney-General is the main legal adviser to the government, and in some jurisdictions may in addition have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions. ...
A magistrate is a judicial officer with limited authority to administer and enforce the law. ...
In law, a hearing is a proceeding before a court or other decisionmaking body or officer. ...
The law of evidence governs the use of testimony (e. ...
In legal parlance, a trial is an event in which parties to a dispute present information (in the form of evidence) in a formal setting, usually a court, before a judge, jury, or other designated finder of fact, in order to achieve a resolution to their dispute. ...
In England and Wales In England and Wales (except in private prosecutions by individuals) an indictment is issued by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on behalf of the Crown, i.e. the monarch, presently Queen Elizabeth II--who is nominally the plaintiff in all public prosecutions under English law. This is why a public prosecution of a man called Mr. Smith would be referred to as "R v Smith" (short for "Regina versus Smith", Regina being Latin for Queen). The head of the CPS is the Director of Public Prosecutions. Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my [birth]right) Englands location (dark green) within the British Isles Languages English (de facto) Capital London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001 Census) – Density Ranked...
For an explanation of often confusing terms such as Great Britain, Britain, United Kingdom and England, see British Isles (terminology). ...
The Crown Prosecution Service is the arm of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. ...
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor), born 21 April 1926, is Queen of sixteen independent nations known as the Commonwealth Realms (and has previously been Queen of sixteen others). ...
A plaintiff, also known as a claimant or complainant, is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an action) before a court. ...
English law is a formal term of art that describes the law for the time being in force in England and Wales. ...
Regina may. ...
The Director of Public Prosecutions is the officer charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several jurisdictions around the world. ...
In the United States In many (though not all) U.S. jurisdictions retaining the grand jury, prosecutors often have a choice between seeking an indictment from a grand jury, or filing a charging document directly with the court. Such a document is usually called an information, accusation, or complaint, to distinguish it from a grand jury indictment. To protect the suspect's due process rights in felony cases (where the suspect's interest in liberty is at stake), there is usually a preliminary hearing where a judge determines if there is probable cause that the charged crime was committed by the suspect in custody. If the judge finds such probable cause, he or she will bind or hold over the suspect for trial. The United States of America — also referred to as the United States, the U.S.A., the U.S., America, the States, or (archaically) Columbia—is a federal republic of 50 states located primarily in central North America (with the exception of two states: Alaska and Hawaii). ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
The substance of an indictment or other charging instrument is usually the same, regardless of the jurisdiction: it consists of a short and plain statement of the time, place and manner in which the defendant is alleged to have committed the offense. Each offense is usually set out in a separate count. Some indictments for complex crimes, particularly those involving conspiracy or numerous counts, can run to hundreds of pages, but many indictments, even for crimes as serious as murder, consist of a single sheet of paper. In the criminal law conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to break the law at some time in the future. ...
Indictable offences are normally tried by jury, unless the accused waives the right to a jury trial. In common law systems, the accused is not normally entitled to a jury trial if the offence charged does not require an indictment; the main exception here is again the U.S., where the Sixth Amendment mandates the right of having a jury trial for any criminal offense punishable by imprisonment for more than six months. Notwithstanding the existence of the right to jury trial, the vast majority of criminal cases in the U.S. are resolved by the plea bargaining process. A jury is a sworn body of persons convened to render a rational, impartial verdict and a finding of fact on a legal question officially submitted to them, or to set a penalty or judgment in a jury trial of a court of law. ...
Amendment VI (the Sixth Amendment) of the United States Constitution guarantees rights related to criminal prosecutions in federal courts. ...
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case in which a prosecutor and a defendant arrange to settle the case against the defendant. ...
Sealed Indictment An indictment can be sealed so that it stays non-public until it is unsealed. This can be done for a number of reasons. It may be unsealed, for example, once the named person is arrested.
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