INDICTMENT, is a written accusation of one —lore persons, of a crime or mis demea nreg-rred to, and presented on oath o -.A jury. An indictment may be found on the oath of one witness only, unless it be for high treason, which requires two witnesses ; and unless in any instance it is otherwise specially di rected by acts of parliament. The sheriff of every county is bound to return to every session of the peace, and every commission of over and terminer, and of general gaol delivery, twenty-four good and lawful men of the connty, some out of every hundred, to enquire, present, do, and execute all those things, which, on the part of our lord the King, shall then and there be commanded therein. As many as appear upon this pannel are sworn of the grand jury, to the amount of twelve, at the least, and not more than twenty-three, that twelve may be a ma jority. This grand jury is previously in structed in the articles of their enquiry, by a charge from the judge on the bench. They then withdraw from court, to sit and receive indictments, which are pre ferred to them in the name of the King, but at the suit of any private prosecutor; and they are only to hear evidence on be half of the prosecution ; for the finding an indictment is only in the nature of an enquiry or accusation, which is afterwards to be tried and determined; and the grand jury are only to enquire, upon their oaths, whether there be sufficient cause to call upon the party to answer it.
The grand jury may not find part of an indictment true, and part false ; but must either find a true bill, or ignoramus, for the whole ; and if they take upon them to find it specially, or conditionally, or to be true for part only, and not for the rest, the whole is void, and the party cannot be tried upon it, but ought to be indicted anew.
All capital crimes whatsoever, and all kinds of inferior crimes, which are of a public nature, as misprisions, contempts, disturbances .of the peace, oppressions, and all other misdemeanours whatsoever, of a public evil example, against the com mon law, may be indicted, but no injuries of a private nature, unless they in some degree concern'the King. And general ly, where a statute prohibits a matter of public grievance to the liberties and se curity of a subject, or commands a matter of public convenience, as the repairing of the common streets of the town, &c.,
every disobedience of such statute is pu nishable, not only at the suit of the party grieved, but also by way of indictment, for contempt of the statute, unless such method of proceeding shall manifestly appear to be excluded by it. Yet, if the party offending have been fined in an ac tion brought by the party (as it is said he may in every action, for doing a thing pro hibited by statute,) such fine is a good bar to the indictment, because by the fine the end of the statute is satisfied ; other wise he would be liable to a second fine for the same offence.
If several offenders commit the same offence, though, in 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, sign-, or signet,) nor any process or return thereupon, shall be quashed for mis-recit ing, misspelling, 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, misspell ing, false or improper Latin, after con viction on such indictment, be any cause of stay, or arrest ofjudgment ; 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 snake 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.