Indictment issues are the bane of the prosecutor’s existence. The rules about how an offense must be alleged in the indictment are highly technical. And because the rules are neither intuitive nor entirely consistent across offenses, they are hard to keep straight. Not surprisingly indictment issues account for a lot of black ink in the appellate reporters. Just how much? In my Criminal Case Compendium, which catalogues all types of criminal cases decided since 2008, there are a full 26 pages of case annotations on indictment issue cases!
names
The Name Game
One of my regular daily reads is the prosecution-oriented blog Crime and Consequences. This recent post reminded me of an issue I struggled with in practice, and which many readers of this blog likely confront on a daily basis — how to refer to the defendant, the victim, and other participants in a criminal case. … Read more