indictment
(ɪnˈdaɪtmənt)
Forms: α. 4–6 endyte-, 4–8 endite-, 5 endyt-, 6 endyght-, 6–7 endightment. β. 5–6 indyte-, 6–8 indite-, 7 indightment. γ. 6– indictment.
[a. AF. enditement, -dictement, f. enditer indict v.1]
1. The action of indicting or accusing, a formal accusation; spec. in Eng. Law, the legal process in which a formal accusation is preferred to and presented by a Grand Jury. Hence the phrases to bring in or lay an indictment, and (of the Grand Jury) to find an indictment.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 8915 Ne quest take of endytement Yn holy cherche, oþer ȝerde purseynt. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 261/2 Indytynge, or indytement for trespas, indictacio. 1460 J. Capgrave Chron. (Rolls) 247 The tydingis of this endytment cam to the knowlech of the duke of Glouceter; and he..swore on the Holy Gospel, that it vas nevyr his purpos. ne his wil, for to purpos no thing ageyn the velfare of the kyng. 1581 Lambarde Eiren. iv. v. (1588) 484, I take an Enditement to be the Verdite of the Iurors, grounded upon the accusation of a third person. 1645 Milton Colast. Wks. (1851) 356 Who dares bring in such a foul endightment against the divine law. 1682 Bunyan Holy War vii, Mr. Haughty,..How sayest thou? Art thou guilty of this indictment or not? a 1716 South Serm. (1717) III. 512 The Hand-writing against him may be Cancelled in the Court of Heaven, and yet the Enditement run on in the Court of Conscience. 1769 Blackstone Comm. IV. xix. 262 When such an indictment is therefore found by a grand jury of freeholders in the king's bench,..it is to be removed by a writ of certiorari into the court of the lord high steward. 1849 James Woodman xiii, You plead, my lord, to an indictment I have never laid. 1886 Farrar Hist. Interpret. 309 An even more tremendous indictment against the decadent morality of Rome and her priesthood might be drawn from the writings of Petrarch. |
| fig. 1645 Milton Tetrach. (1851) 146 Must we against the glory of Gods transcendent love towards us be still the servants of a literall ‘indightment’? |
b. The legal document containing the charge; ‘a written accusation of one or more persons of a crime or misdemeanor, preferred to, and presented upon oath by, a grand jury’ (Blackstone). Hence
to draw (up) an indictment.
| 1506 W. de Worde (title) The boke of Justyces of peas the charge with..all that longyth to ony Justyce to make endytements of haute treason, petyt treason. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII, 86 When thenditement was openly redde, the Duke sayd it is false. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iii. vi. 1 Here is the Indictment of the good Lord Hastings, Which in a set Hand fairely is engross'd, That it may be to day read o'er in Paules. 1660 South Serm. (1717) IV. 7 Notaries and Journeymen to Courts, to draw up Inditements, Bonds, Leases, Contracts, and the like. 1686 F. Spence tr. Varillas' Ho. Medicis 15 The Enditement was drawn up. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xv. (1889) II. 177 A motion in arrest of judgment was instantly made, on the ground that a Latin word endorsed on the back of the indictment was incorrectly spelt. 1883 Sir J. F. Stephen Hist. Crim. Law I. 274 When they [the grand jury] have heard enough to satisfy themselves that a prima facie case is or is not made out against the prisoner, they endorse upon the indictment ‘a true bill’ or ‘no true bill’ as the case may be. |
| fig. 1875 M{supc}Laren Serm. Ser. ii. vi. 103 The gloomy indictment has been penned by our own hands. |
c. bill of indictment, the written accusation as preferred to the Grand Jury, before it has been by them either found a true bill, or ignored.
| c 1530 Star Chamb. Proceed. in Proc. Soc. Antiq. Ser. ii. IV. 322 The seid William Trewhitt toke the seid billes of indytement of the seid fyle. 1589 Pasquil's Return C iij b, The..Elders..had neuer put vppe any Billes of endightment against her the last Parliament. 1678 Hale Hist. Placit. Cor. (1736) xxii. II. 157 If a bill of indictment for murder, or other capital offence be presented against A, if upon the hearing the king's evidence..they are dissatisfied, they [the grand inquest] may return the bill ignoramus. 1769 Blackstone Comm. IV. xxiii. 301 A presentment..is the notice taken by a grand jury of any offence from their own knowledge or observation, without any bill of indictment laid before them at the suit of the king. 1818 Jas. Mill Brit. India (1826) V. 53 The absurdities with which a bill of indictment is frequently stuffed. |
2. Scots Law. A form of process by which a criminal is brought to trial at the instance of the Lord Advocate; the formal written charge.
| 1773 Erskine Just. iv. iv. §87 The trial of proper crimes by the court of justiciary proceeds either on indictment, which method is generally observed when the accused person to be tried is in prison, or [etc.]. Ibid. §89 That part of the indictment..which contains the ground of the charge against the defender, and the nature and degree of the punishment that he ought to suffer, is called the libel. 1861 Bell's Dict. Law Scot. 440/2 Where the private party is the principal prosecutor..it is not in the form of an indictment that he brings his action, but in the form of criminal letters. Ibid. 441/1 The indictment is prepared in a syllogistic form, in which the major proposition states the nature of the crime..the minor proposition states the offence actually committed..the conclusion is, that on the panel's conviction by the jury, he ought to suffer the punishment inflicted by law on the crime. |
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Add:
[1.] d. transf. That which serves to accuse or censure; a condemnation, criticism, or charge.
| 1871 W. D. Christie Life Shaftesbury II. xii. 81 The heavy indictment of history against the so-called Cabal Ministry. 1902 G. B. Shaw Mrs. Warren's Profession 8 Mrs Warren's defence of herself and indictment of society is the thing that most needs saying. 1918 T. Roosevelt in Metropolitan Mag. (N.Y.) June 9/1 The most powerful indictment of the corrupt and inefficient tyranny of the Romanoffs..is that it produced Bolshevism. 1930 Engineering 25 July 111/3 A common indictment against modern conditions is that machine tending is ‘soul destroying’. 1954 W. Faulkner Fable 334 Yelling at them—a sound hoarse, loud, without language, not of threat or indictment either. 1989 Independent 10 Oct. 23/2 The indictment now levelled against the Government is that the years of Thatcherite prosperity have been matched by a deterioration in public services and the environment. |