my nephew was given a 'direct indictment'. What does that mean?

Answer 1

It means that the district attorney has bypassed the magistrate and directly persued charges on him. Functionally, it doesn;t mean anything different from a normal warrant/charge. In my experience though, direct indictments tend to be a little more sound.

Answer 2

In the common law legal system, an indictment (IPA: [/ɪnˈdaɪt.mənt/]) is a formal charge of having committed a most serious criminal offence. In those jurisdictions which retain the concept of a felony, the serious criminal offence would be a felony; those jurisdictions which have abolished the concept of a felony often substitute instead the concept of an indictable offence, i.e. an offence which requires an indictment. Traditionally an indictment was handed up by a grand jury, but most common law jurisdictions (with the exception of those in the United States) have abolished grand juries

In many (though not all) U.S. jurisdictions retaining the grand jury, prosecutors often have a choice between seeking an indictment from a grand jury, or filing a charging document directly with the court. Such a document is usually called an information, accusation, or complaint, to distinguish it from a grand jury indictment. To protect the suspect's due process rights in felony cases (where the suspect's interest in liberty is at stake), there is usually a preliminary hearing where a judge determines if there is probable cause that the charged crime was committed by the suspect in custody. If the judge finds such probable cause, he or she will bind or hold over the suspect for trial.

The substance of an indictment or other charging instrument is usually the same, regardless of the jurisdiction: it consists of a short and plain statement of the time, place and manner in which the defendant is alleged to have committed the offense. Each offense is usually set out in a separate count. Some indictments for complex crimes, particularly those involving conspiracy or numerous counts, can run to hundreds of pages, but many indictments, even for crimes as serious as murder, consist of a single sheet of paper.

Indictable offences are normally tried by jury, unless the accused waives the right to a jury trial. In common law systems, the accused is not normally entitled to a jury trial if the offence charged does not require an indictment; the main exception here is again the U.S., where the Sixth Amendment mandates the right of having a jury trial for any criminal offense punishable by imprisonment for more than six months. Notwithstanding the existence of the right to jury trial, the vast majority of criminal cases in the U.S. are resolved by the plea bargaining process.


Sealed Indictment
An indictment can be sealed so that it stays non-public until it is unsealed. This can be done for a number of reasons. It may be unsealed, for example, once the named person is arrested.

Answer 3

It means that he is in big trouble, He has been directly given not served an indictment an indictment is in criminal law, a formal written accusation of a crime affirmed by a grand jury and handed up to the court for trial of the accused.

In the U.S., the indictment is one of three principal methods of charging offenses, the others being the information (a written accusation resembling an indictment, prepared and presented to the court by a prosecuting official) and, for petty offenses, a complaint by the aggrieved party or by a police officer. An indictment may contain several counts.

Answer 4

This means he was indicted without having to have gone in front of any jury. The D.A. had him indictated JUST on the evidence that they have. sounds like your nephew has a problem and should get a lawyer real quick.