Opinion ID: 343299
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Did the Indictment Sufficiently Inform Appellees of the Charges Against Them?

Text: 11 The Supreme Court has held that an indictment is sufficient if it, first, contains the elements of the offense charged and fairly informs a defendant of the charge against which he must defend, and second, enables him to plead an acquittal or conviction in bar of future prosecutions for the same offense. Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87, 117, 94 S.Ct. 2887, 2907, 41 L.Ed.2d 590 (1974). See also United States v. Briggs, 514 F.2d 794, 801 (5th Cir. 1975). The appellees do not seriously urge that the indictment is so vague that they could be in danger of further prosecution placing them in double jeopardy. Hence the point in contention is whether the indictment fairly informs the appellees of the charges against which they must defend. 12 There can be little doubt that the indictment adequately performed its function of alerting the defendants to the charges against them. Each concealment count pointed to a specific transaction, the date of that transaction, the parties participating, the fact concealed, and, by virtue of the nature of the transaction, the materiality of the concealed fact. Although the trick, scheme or device was not specifically identified, it is clear that the government supposed that the appellees' failure to inform the Farmers Home Administration of the existence or imminence of second mortgages on the property securing the Rural Housing loan a second mortgage made necessary by the sale of homes at a price greater than that represented on the loan applications constituted the essential concealment. Whether that concealment comprised a trick, scheme, or device was, to be sure, a separate question, but it is a question of the legal significance of those words. The appellees could have been in no doubt regarding the accusation notwithstanding the fact that the indictment merely tracked the words of the statute in alleging a trick, scheme, or device. 13 It is generally sufficient that an indictment set forth the offense in the words of the statute itself as long as those words fully, directly, and expressly, without any uncertainty or ambiguity, set forth all the elements necessary to constitute the offense intended to be punished. See Hamling v. United States, supra, 418 U.S. at 117, 94 S.Ct. at 2907; United States v. Lester, 541 F.2d 499, 501 (5th Cir. 1976); Downing v. United States, 348 F.2d 594, 599 (5th Cir. 1965). This is not a case in which guilt depends crucially on a specific identification of fact left obscure by the mere repetition of a statutory term. See Russell v. United States, 369 U.S. 749, 764, 82 S.Ct. 1038, 1047, 8 L.Ed.2d 240 (1962) (where indictment under 2 U.S.C. § 192 charged that defendants refused to answer questions pertinent to a subject under inquiry by a Congressional committee but failed to identify that subject, indictment was deficient for failing to apprise defendant of the accusation). The crucial transactions relied upon to demonstrate the offense were identified. See United States v. Smith, 523 F.2d 771, 779 (5th Cir. 1975). The appellees could have elicited additional details regarding those transactions by a bill of particulars. The test is not whether the indictment might have been drawn with greater certainty and exactitude, but rather whether it set forth the elements of the offense charged and sufficiently apprised defendants of the charges. United States v. Markham, 537 F.2d 187, 193 (5th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 97 S.Ct. 739, 50 L.Ed.2d 752 (1977). The validity of the indictment must be determined by practical, not technical, considerations. Id. at 192. 14 We think practical considerations compel the conclusion that the indictment, which was so detailed in every other respect, was not deficient solely because it failed to provide factual elaboration upon the statutory terms, conceals . . . by any trick, scheme, or device. The district court's judgment consequently cannot be upheld for the reasons it adduces. 15