Opinion ID: 2559985
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Indictment and Challenge

Text: For more than two hundred years Delaware's Constitutions have afforded its citizens the right of being proceeded against in a felony criminal prosecution only upon an indictment by the grand jury. [3] The Fifth Amendment provisions relating to the grand jury have always been binding upon the federal courts. [4] The United States Supreme Court has never held, however, that the Fifth Amendment concepts of a grand jury are applicable to the states by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporation doctrine. [5] Therefore, Mott's challenge to the Superior Court's indictment is based exclusively upon the grand jury protections in the Delaware Constitution. [6] An indictment serves at least two purposes: to put the accused on notice of the charges he or she must defend; and to avoid subsequent prosecution for the same offense. [7] These purposes are fulfilled if the indictment, as required by [Superior Court Criminal] Rule 7(c), contains a plain statement of the elements or essential facts of the crime. [8] Mott's indictment alleges: GERRY J. MOTT, between the 17th day of August, 2005 and the 17th day of August, 2006, in the County of Sussex, State of Delaware, did legally receive and exercise control over U.S. Currency provided by Joshua and Julia Littleton and fraudulently converted such property to his own use by receiving payment and intentionally failing to use such payments for purposes identified in the new construction contract and/or diverting said payments to uses other than the construction of the dwelling, in violation of Title 11, Section 917 of the Delaware Code. Mott contends that the indictment was fatally defective because, he alleges, it omits an essential element necessary to charge the offense as a class G felony, that is, the dollar amount of the crime. Mott argues that the dollar amounts are results that constitute the elements of the offense as defined in section 232 of title 11. Section 232 states: Elements of an offense are those physical acts, attendant circumstances, results and states of mind which are specifically included in the definition of the offense or, if the definition is incomplete, those states of mind which are supplied by the general provisions of the Criminal Code. The dollar amounts of section 917(c), however, are not specifically included within the definition of the offense, which is defined in section 917(b) with reference to section 841.