Attorney Austin Nelson explaining an Indictment
Arrested, charged, and indicted get thrown around like they’re interchangeable. They aren’t, and mixing them up leads to a lot of unnecessary confusion and worry. This post continues our Courtroom Q&A series, where we walk through the Georgia criminal court process one step at a time for people who have never dealt with any of this before. If you missed the earlier parts, we’ve covered arraignment, Miranda rights, the calendar call, and what discovery actually is. This time, we’re covering a word that shows up constantly in criminal cases and is rarely explained: indictment.
Where an indictment fits in the process
It helps to see the whole shape of a felony case before zooming in on one step of it. In Georgia, a case generally moves from arrest, to a first appearance and bond hearing within 48 to 72 hours, to either a preliminary hearing or a grand jury review, to an indictment if the grand jury approves the charges, to an arraignment where those charges are formally read and a plea is entered, and then into discovery, pretrial motions, negotiations, and either a resolution or a trial. An indictment sits right in the middle of that sequence, after the early hearings and before the case is truly underway in Superior Court. Everything before it is about getting a case moving. Everything after it is about resolving it.
What an indictment actually is
An indictment is a formal, written accusation that a grand jury has voted to approve. When a grand jury reviews a felony case and finds probable cause, it returns what’s called a true bill, and that true bill becomes the indictment. It lists the specific charges against a person in the language of the statute they’re accused of violating. It is not a verdict, and it is not proof that a crime was actually committed. It’s the document that allows a felony case to formally move forward in Superior Court.
Charged versus indicted
Being charged is a broader term. It can mean an officer arrested someone on a specific charge, or a prosecutor filed a charging document. Being indicted specifically means a grand jury reviewed the case and approved it. In Georgia, most felony cases require an indictment before they can proceed to trial in Superior Court. Misdemeanors and some lower-level felonies skip this step entirely and move forward on an accusation instead, a charging document a prosecutor files directly, without grand jury involvement.
Waiving indictment
For certain non-capital felonies, a defendant can choose to waive the right to a grand jury indictment in writing and proceed on an accusation instead. This sometimes happens when a resolution is already being worked out and both sides want to move the case along without waiting on a grand jury’s schedule. It’s a decision worth making with an attorney’s guidance, not something to agree to without understanding what’s being given up.
You can be indicted before you’re ever arrested
This is the part that surprises people most. An indictment doesn’t require an arrest to come first. A grand jury can review evidence and return a true bill against someone who hasn’t been taken into custody yet, sometimes called a direct indictment. When that happens, the indictment itself is what triggers a warrant for arrest. Finding out about an indictment before an arrest, rather than after, is exactly why getting ahead of a situation with an attorney matters.
What happens after an indictment
Once an indictment is returned, the case moves to an arraignment in Superior Court, where the defendant is formally advised of the charges in the indictment and enters a plea. From there, the case follows the same general track we’ve covered elsewhere in this series: discovery, pretrial motions, negotiations, and either a resolution or a trial date.
Why this matters if you’re facing a charge
An indictment can sound like the end of the road. It isn’t. It’s a procedural step that allows a case to continue, built on a probable cause standard that’s far lower than what it takes to actually convict someone at trial. Understanding what the word means, and what it doesn’t mean, is one of the simplest ways to stay grounded if it comes up in a case involving you or someone you know.
Wondering what an indictment actually means for a specific situation in Cobb County? That’s worth finding out directly, rather than guessing from the word alone.
If you have been indicted, an experienced Marietta criminal defense attorney can explain what comes next. See the charges Austin defends.
This post is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
