Indicted - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: indicted Page: 5Absence of accused
Absence of accused, The accused must be present at the trial in cases of treason and felony, and cannot be sentenced in his absence, R. v. Hales, (1924) 1 KB 602.In cases of indictable misdemeanours, though the accused's presence at the actual trial is not absolutely essential, he must be present at the preliminary inquiry. With regard to summary jurisdiction, the justices may proceed ex parte after proof of service of the summons.Absence of husband or wife for seven years is, under certain circumstances, a defence on an indictment for bigamy. See BIGAMY....
Confession by culprit
Confession by culprit, the acknowledgment by a criminal of the offence charged against him when charged by any person or called upon to plead to the indictment. A confession before trial, if given without any inducement of favour or threat of punishment, is evidence against the person charged even though he may be in custody (R. v. Best, (1909) 1 KB 692), and by the Criminal Justice Act, 1925 (c. 86), s. 12, replacing Indictable Offences Act, 1848, s. 18, and the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, s. 13 (2), justices of the peace are directed to give an accused person 'clearly to understand that he has nothing to hope from any promise of favour, and nothing to fear from any threat which may have been held out to him' to make any confession of guilt. See ACCUSED....
Commitment
Commitment, (1) the sending a person to prison by warrantor order, either for a crime, contempt, or contumacy [see the (English) Debtors Act, 1869, for the abolition of imprisonment for debt, 32 & 33 Vict. c. 62, s. 5]. In the county Court, judgment debts which the debtor has the means [Re A Debtor, (1905) 1 KB 374] to, but will not pay, can be enforced by commitment for a term not exceeding six weeks. This procedure can be applied to an award under the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906 (Bailey v. Plant, 1901 (1) KB 31); see ATTACH-MENT, and R.S.C. Ord. XLIV.; and (2) the sending to prison, pending his trial at Assizes or Quarte, Sessions, by justices of the peace, under the (English) Indictable Offences Act, 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 42), of a person charged with an indictable offence, in a case where the evidence is sufficient....
Central Criminal Court
Central Criminal Court. This court was created by the (English) Central Criminal Court Act, 1834 (4 & 5 Wm. , c. 36), for the trial of all cases of treasons, murders, felonies, and misdemeanours committed within the county of Middlesex, and in certain specified parts of the counties of Essex, Kent, and Surrey, all of which constitute one county for the purpose of the Act, and also commissions of goal delivery to deliver the goal of Newgate of the prisoners therein charged with any of the offences aforesaid. The Court consists of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and also of the Judges; and there are twelve sessions held in every year, at times fixed by four or more of the judges of the High Court, (English) (Judicature Act, 1925, s. 74). The 17th section of the Act authorizes the Court to try offences committed on the high seas; and the (English) Central Criminal Court Act, 1856 (19 & 20 Vict. c. 16) [see (English) Palmer's Act], authorizes the King's Bench Division of the High Court to orde...
Calling upon a prisoner
Calling upon a prisoner. When a prisoner has been found guilty on an indictment, the clerk of the court addresses him and calls upon him to say why judgment should not be passed upon him. To this, he is strictly only entitled to point out a defect of law in the indictment or otherwise. See ALLOCUTUS....
Blasphemy
Blasphemy [fr. bl'ptw, Gk., to hurt, and fhmh, reputation; blasfhmw', to speak impiously; blasphemo, Lat., to revile, Wedgw.], an offence against God and religion, by denying to the Almighty His Being and Providence, or by contumelious reproaches of our Saviour Christ. Also, all profane scoffing at the Holy Scripture, and exposing it to contempt and ridicule. It is an indictable misdemeanour at Common Law, see Reg. v. Ramsay & Foote, (1993) 15 Cox, CC 231.In case an offender has been educated in or at any time made profession of Christianity, the statute 9 & 10 Wm. 3, c. 32 (c. 35 in the Revised Statutes), Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Criminal Law (Offences against Peace, etc.), commonly called 'The Blasphemy Act,' though it is only directed against apostasy, but is cumulative upon the common law, R. v. Carlile, (1819) 3 B. & Ald. 167, very severely punishes any person 'who shall by writing printing teaching or advised speaking, deny the Christian religion to be true, or the Holy Scripture...
Birth, Concealing
Birth, Concealing. See Offences against the Person Act, 1861, s. 60, which enacts that every person who shall, by any secret disposition (see R. v. Brown, 1870 LR 1 CCR 244) of the dead body of a child, whether such child died before, at, or after his birth, endeavour to conceal the birth thereof, shall be guilty of a misdeameanour, punishable with imprisonment not exceeding two years. To constitute the offence it must be established that the mother was delivered of a child within the meaning of the statute (see R. v. Colmer, 9 Cox, 506; R. v. Hewitt, 4 F. & F. 1101), that there was a definite act of concealment of the body as distinguished from abandonment, that the child was dead at the time, and that a body has been found and identified with that of the child to whom the charge relates. S. 60 of the Act provides, further, that if any woman tried for the murder of a child is acquitted thereof, she can lawfully be convicted of concealment of birth if there is evidence of that offence....
Bill in criminal cases
Bill in criminal cases. Grand Juries were abolished by the (English) Administration of Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1933 (23 & 24 Geo. 5, c. 36), from 1st September, 1933, except in certain cases [s. 1 (9)]. S. 2 of the Act provides for the new procedure. Until this Act was passed the bill was an indictment of a crime or misdemeanour preferred to a grand jury; evidence in support of it was adduced; if the grand jury thought it a groundless accusation, they endorsed 'not a true bill,' or 'not found,' and then the party was discharged without further answer, but a fresh bill might afterwards be preferred to a subsequent grand jury. If they were satisfied of the truth of the accusation, they then endorsed upon it 'a true bill'; the indictment was then said to be found and the party stood his trial....
multiplicity
multiplicity pl: -ties 1 a : the quality or state of being multiple or various b : the charging of a single criminal act or offense as multiple separate charges or counts of an indictment or information [ does not require dismissal of the indictment "W. R. LaFave and J. H. Israel"] compare duplicity, misjoinder NOTE: Multiplicity raises the risk of violating the double jeopardy protection against receiving multiple sentences for a single offense. Multiplicity is a defect that can be corrected without dismissal of the case. 2 : a great number [joinder is allowed to avoid a of actions] ...
return
return 1 a : to give (an official account or report) to a superior (as by a list or statement) [ the names of all residents in the ward] [ a list of jurors] b : to bring back (as a writ, verdict, or indictment) to an office or tribunal [the sheriff must the execution…to the proper clerk within sixty days "J. H. Friedenthal et al."] [the grand jury ed six indictments] [ed a verdict of not guilty] 2 : to bring in or produce (as earnings or profit) : yield re·turn·able adj n 1 a : the delivery of a court order (as a writ) to the proper officer or court b : proof of service 2 : return day 3 : an account or formal report (as of an action performed or duty discharged or of facts and statistics) [census s] ;esp : a set of tabulated statistics prepared for general information usually used in pl. 4 a : a report of the results of balloting [election s] b : an official declaration of the election of a candidate [each house shall be the judge of the elections, s,...
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