criminal indictment
Official felony charge
A criminal indictment is a formal accusation issued by a grand jury charging someone with a serious crime.
The indictment authorizes prosecutors to proceed with a trial.
In American federal cases and many state systems, felony charges require indictment by grand jury rather than a prosecutor's complaint alone: The grand jury returned a criminal indictment on three counts of fraud.
- grand juryInvestigative charging body
- felonySerious criminal offense
- arraignmentCharge-reading court session
- court appearanceMandatory attendance before judge
- defendantParty facing charges
perp walk · misdemeanor · prosecutor · subpoena · sworn testimony · conspiracy · fraud · probable cause · mistrial · embezzlement · plea bargain · defense attorney · perjury · pretrial hearing · judge · beyond reasonable doubt · victim · true bill
- criminal chargesarson, burglary, homicide, kidnapping, robbery
- pretrial proceedingspreliminary hearing, preliminary hearings, pretrial hearing, pretrial detention, arraignment
criminal indictmentacquittal
Formal clearing of charges
exoneration · dismissal · not guilty verdict · vindication · case dismissed
criminal indictmentexoneration
Official clearing of blame
vindication · clean record · good standing · commendation · character witness
criminal, indictment, crime, crimes, criminality, criminally, criminalize, criminalized, criminalizing