INDICTMENT, in Law, one of the modes of prosecuting an offender. See PROSECUTION.
In English law, it is a written accusation of one or
more persons of a crime or misdemeanor, preferred to, and presented upon oath by, a grand jury. To this end, the sheriff of every county is bound to return to every session of the peace, and every commission of oyer and terminer, and of general gaol-delivery, twenty-four good and lawful men of the county, some out of every hundred, to inquire, present, do, and execute all those things, which on the part of our lord the king shall then and there be commanded them. They ought to be freeholders; but to what amount is uncertain: which seems to be casus omissus, and as proper to be supplied by the legislature as the qualifications of the petit jury; which were formerly equally vague and uncertain, but are now settled by several acts of parliament. However, they are usually gentlemen of the best figure in the county. As many as appear upon this pannel, are sworn upon the grand jury, to the amount of twelve at the least, and not more than twenty-three; that twelve may be a majority. Which number, as well as the constitution itself, we find exactly described so early as the laws of King Ethelred: Exeant seniores duodecim thani, et praefectus cum eis, ut jurent
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