criminal complaint

Justin Schwartz jkschw at hotmail.com
Tue Jan 22 19:00:20 PST 2002


I have a real strong feeling that the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure do not apply to the al Qaida and Taliban "unlawful combatants." I was just answering the question what the diff bewteen complaints, indictments, and informations is. jks


>
>On Tue, 22 Jan 2002, Justin Schwartz wrote:
>
> > >What's the difference between a criminal complaint and an indictment?
>And
> > >what's the significance that the charges against Johnny Walker are in
>the
> > >form of a criminal complaint rather than an indictment?
> >
> > 1) You can be indicted by a grand jury, which hears the prosecution's
>story
> > in closed chambers and decides if there is enough to issue a true bill,
> > i.e., for the government to proceed with the case. (It almost always
>does.).
> > Fed. R. Crim P. 7(a).
> >
> > 2) A defendant may waive the grand jury proceeding and allow the governt
>to
> > proceed by "information," which is just a statement of the charges and
>their
> > basis. Rule 7(b).
> >
> > 3) A complaint is a written statement of the essential facts
>constituting
> > the offense charged. Fed. R. Crim P. 3. It's normally the basis of a
>warrant
> > if there is probable cause.
>
>So you're saying the reason that Ashcroft issued their charges against
>against Johnny Walker in the form of a criminal complaint instead of
>getting a grand jury indictment (which the government took out against
>Richard Reid) must be that Johnny waived the grand jury proceedings? Or
>that his investigation is at an earlier stage and might yet proceed to an
>indictment? Or that it's not clear but anyway it doesn't matter?
>
>Michael
>
>__________________________________________________________________________
>Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com
>

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