Description

Most States, by constitution or statute, require the prosecution of some or all serious crimes by indictment. The Fifth Amendment to the federal Constitution similarly requires that prosecutions for any “capital, or otherwise infamous crime [in the federal courts be by] . . . indictment.” The requirement is conceived principally as a protection to the defendant, and s/he may waive it. See, e.g., People v. Myers, 32 N.Y.3d 18, 20, 109 N.E.3d 555, 556, 84 N.Y.S.3d 406, 407 (2018) (upholding the validity of a defendant’s waiver of the right to indictment “[b]ecause Steven Myers and the court supervising his waiver followed” the applicable procedure – under which defendants can “waive that right by signing a written instrument in open court in the presence of their counsel” – but the Court of Appeals “emphasize[s] . . . that the better practice . . . is for courts to elicit defendants’ understanding of the significance of the right being waived, to minimize future challenges to the effectiveness of the waiver”). Indictments are the product of a grand jury. See § 2.4.3 supra.

First Page

331

Source Publication

Trial Manual 11 for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Source Editors/Authors

Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Publication Date

2026

Document Type

Chapter

Edition

11

Rights & Restrictions

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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