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Invictus

"Invictus" is a short poem by the Victorian era British poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903). Henley wrote it in 1875, and in 1888 he published it in his first volume of poems, Book of Verses, in the section titled "Life and Death (Echoes)".

Background
When Henley was 16 years old, his left leg required amputation owing to complications arising from tuberculosis. In the early 1870s, after seeking treatment for problems with his other leg at Margate, he was told that it would require a similar procedure.

He instead chose to travel to Edinburgh in August 1873 to enlist the services of the distinguished English surgeon Joseph Lister, who was able to save Henley's remaining leg after multiple surgical interventions on the foot. While recovering in the infirmary, he was moved to write the verses that became the poem "Invictus". A memorable evocation of Victorian stoicism—the "stiff upper lip" of self-discipline and fortitude in adversity, which popular culture rendered into a British character trait—"Invictus" remains a cultural touchstone.

Poem
INVICTUS

Out of the night that covers me Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate I am the captain of my soul.

Analysis
Latin for "unconquered", the poem "Invictus" is a deeply descriptive and motivational work filled with vivid imagery. With four stanzas and sixteen lines, each containing eight syllables, the poem has a rather uncomplicated structure. The poem is most known for its themes of willpower and strength in the face of adversity, much of which is drawn from the horrible fate assigned to many amputees of the day—gangrene and death.

Each stanza takes considerable note of William Ernest Henley's perseverance and fearlessness throughout his early life and over twenty months under Lister's care. In the second stanza, Henley refers to the strength that helped him through a childhood defined by his struggles with tuberculosis when he says "I have not winced nor cried aloud." In the fourth stanza, Henley alludes to the fact that each individual's destiny is under the jurisdiction of themselves, not at the mercy of the obstacles they face, nor other worldly powers.

Those who have taken time to analyze "Invictus" have also taken notice of religious themes, or the lack thereof, that exist in this piece. There is agreement that much of the dark descriptions in the opening lines make reference to Hell. Later, the fourth stanza of the poem alludes to a phrase from the King James Bible, which says, at Matthew 7:14, "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

Despite Henley's evocative tellings of perseverance and determination, worry was on his mind; in a letter to a close companion, William Ernest Henley later confided, "I am afeard my marching days are over" when asked about the condition of his leg.

Publication history
The second edition of Henley's Book of Verses added a dedication "To R. T. H. B."—a reference to Robert Thomas Hamilton Bruce, a successful Scottish flour merchant, baker, and literary patron. The 1900 edition of Henley's Poems, published after Bruce's death, altered the dedication to "I. M. R. T. Hamilton Bruce (1846–1899)," whereby I. M. stands for "in memoriam."

Title
The poem was published in 1888 in his first volume of poems, Book of Verses, with no title, but would later be reprinted in 19th-century newspapers under various titles, including:
 * "Myself"
 * "Song of a Strong Soul"
 * "My Soul"
 * "Clear Grit"
 * "Master of His Fate"
 * "Captain of My Soul"
 * "Urbs Fortitudinis"
 * "De Profundis"

The established title "Invictus" was added by editor Arthur Quiller-Couch when the poem was included in the Oxford Book of English Verse (1900).

History

 * In a speech to the House of Commons on 9 September 1941, Winston Churchill paraphrased the last two lines of the poem, stating "We are still masters of our fate. We still are captains of our souls."
 * Nelson Mandela, while incarcerated at Robben Island prison, recited the poem to other prisoners and was empowered by its message of self-mastery.
 * Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi stated: "This poem had inspired my father, Aung San, and his contemporaries during the independence struggle, as it also seemed to have inspired freedom fighters in other places at other times."
 * The poem was read by U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. James Stockdale recalls being passed the last stanza, written with rat droppings on toilet paper, from fellow prisoner David Hatcher.
 * The phrase "bloody, but unbowed" was the headline used by the Daily Mirror on the day after the 7 July 2005 London bombings.
 * The poem's last stanza was quoted by U.S. President Barack Obama at the end of his speech at the memorial service of Nelson Mandela in South Africa (10 December 2013), and published on the front cover of the 14 December 2013 issue of The Economist.
 * The poem was chosen by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh as his final statement before his execution.
 * The perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand in 2019 cited "Invictus".
 * According to his sister, before becoming a civil rights leader, Congressman John Lewis used to recite the poem as a teenager and continued to refer to it for inspiration throughout his life.
 * Verse "Out of the night that covers me" and phrases "Bloody, but unbowed" and "Captain of my soul" are used as titles of all three parts of Prince Harry's memoir Spare (published in 2023). The poem is also mentioned as the author reminisces his involvement in the Invictus Games.

Literature

 * In Oscar Wilde's De Profundis letter in 1897, he reminisces that "I was no longer the Captain of my soul."
 * In Book Five, chapter III ("The Self-Sufficiency of Vertue") of his early autobiographical work, The Pilgrim's Regress (1933), C. S. Lewis included a quote from the last two lines (paraphrased by the character Vertue): "I cannot put myself under anyone's orders. I must be the captain of my soul and the master of my fate. But thank you for your offer."
 * In W. E. B. Du Bois' The Quest of the Silver Fleece, the last stanza is sent anonymously from one character to another to encourage him to stay strong in the face of tests to his manhood.
 * The phrase "bloody, but unbowed" was quoted by Lord Peter Wimsey in Dorothy Sayers' novel Clouds of Witness (1926), referring to his failure to exonerate his brother of the charge of murder.
 * The last line in the poem is used as the title for Gwen Harwood's 1960 poem "I am the Captain of My Soul", which presents a different view of the titular captain.

Film

 * In Casablanca (1942), Captain Renault (played by Claude Rains) recites the last two lines of the poem when talking to Rick Blaine (played by Humphrey Bogart), referring to his power in Casablanca. While delivering the last line, he is called away by an aide to Gestapo officer Major Strasser.
 * In Kings Row (1942), psychiatrist Parris Mitchell (played by Robert Cummings) recites the first two stanzas of "Invictus" to his friend Drake McHugh (played by Ronald Reagan) before revealing to Drake that his legs were unnecessarily amputated by a cruel doctor.
 * In Sunrise at Campobello (1960), the character Louis Howe (played by Hume Cronyn) reads the poem to Franklin D. Roosevelt (played by Ralph Bellamy). The recitation is at first light-hearted and partially in jest, but as it continues both men appear to realize the significance of the poem to Roosevelt's fight against his paralytic illness.
 * Nelson Mandela is depicted in Invictus (2009) presenting a copy of the poem to Francois Pienaar, captain of the national South African rugby team, for inspiration during the Rugby World Cup—though at the actual event he gave Pienaar a text of "The Man in the Arena" passage from Theodore Roosevelt's Citizenship in a Republic speech delivered in France in 1910.
 * The last two lines "I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul" are shown in a picture during the 25th minute of the film The Big Short (2015).
 * Star Trek: Renegades (2015) opens with Lexxa Singh reciting the poem and writing it on the wall of her prison cell.

Television

 * In the 5th episode of the 2nd season of Archer, "The Double Deuce" (2011), Woodhouse describes Reggie as "in the words of Henley, 'bloody, but unbowed'".
 * In the 8th episode of the 5th season of TV series The Blacklist, "Ian Garvey", Raymond 'Red' Reddington (played by James Spader) reads the poem to Elizabeth Keen when she wakes up from a ten-month coma.
 * In the 6th episode of the third season of One Tree Hill, "Locked Hearts & Hand Grenades" (2006), Lucas Scott (played by Chad Michael Murray) references the poem in an argument with Haley James Scott (played by Bethany Joy Lenz) over his heart condition and playing basketball. The episode ends with Lucas reading the whole poem over a series of images that link the various characters to the themes of the poem.
 * In season 1, episode 2 of New Amsterdam, "Ritual", Dr. Floyd Reynolds (played by Jocko Sims) references the poem while prepping hands for surgery prior to a conversation with his fellow doctor Dr. Lauren Bloom (played by Janet Montgomery).
 * In the episode "Interlude" of the series The Lieutenant, the lead character and the woman he is infatuated with jointly recite the poem after she has said it is her favorite poem. His reciting is flawed by lapses, which she fills in.
 * In season 4, episode 14 of New Amsterdam, "...Unto the Breach", Dr. Floyd Reynolds (played by Jocko Sims) recites the poem while prepping for surgery.
 * In season 1, episode 3 of Hulu's Nine Perfect Strangers, Napoleon Marconi (played by Michael Shannon) references the poem in his one-on-one with Masha (played by Nicole Kidman) when referring to his son who died by suicide. Napoleon states, "Zach chose to be the master of his fate" referencing the line "I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul" by Henley.
 * In episode 22, season 5 of 30 Rock, “Everything Sunny All the Time Always”, Jack Donaghy quotes the last two lines of the poem in to Liz Lemon.

Sports

 * Jerry Kramer recited the poem during his NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame induction speech.
 * The Invictus Games—The Invictus games were founded by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, the Ministry of Defense, and Sir Keith Mills. Prior to the inaugural games in London in 2014, entertainers including Daniel Craig and Tom Hardy, and athletes including Louis Smith and Iwan Thomas, read the poem in a promotional video.

Video games

 * The second stanza is recited by Lieutenant-Commander Ashley Williams in the 2012 video game Mass Effect 3
 * The game Sunless Sea features an "Invictus Token" for players who forgo the right to create backups of their current game state. The item text includes the last two lines of the poem.
 * The poem was recited in an early commercial for the Microsoft Xbox One.
 * The game Robotics;Notes features the last two lines of the poem in its epigraph.

Music

 * The lines "I am the master of my fate... I am the captain of my soul" are paraphrased in Lana Del Rey's song "Lust for Life" featuring The Weeknd. The lyrics are changed from "I" to "we," alluding to a relationship.
 * Belgian Black / Folk Metal band Ancient Rites use the poem as a song on their album Rvbicon (Latin form of Rubicon)
 * The prominent classical contemporary Indonesian composer Ananda Sukarlan (b. 1968) made a song for soprano, cello and piano in 2023. It was premiered by the soprano Ratnaganadi Paramita in Jakarta, Indonesia.
 * The Canadian punk band D.O.A. released a record entitled Bloodied but Unbowed (The Damage to Date 1978-83) in 1983.

title: Invictus


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Tertiary sector of the economy

The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the secondary sector (manufacturing).

The tertiary sector consists of the provision of services instead of end products. Services (also known as "intangible goods") include attention, advice, access, experience and affective labour.

The tertiary sector involves the provision of services to other businesses as well as to final consumers. Services may involve the transport, distribution and sale of goods from a producer to a consumer, as may happen in wholesaling and retailing, pest control or financial services. The goods may be transformed in the process of providing the service, as happens in the restaurant industry. However, the focus is on people by interacting with them and serving the customers rather than transforming the physical goods. The production of information has been long regarded as a service, but some economists now attribute it to a fourth sector, called the quaternary sector.

Difficulty of definition
It is sometimes hard to determine whether a given company is part of the secondary or the tertiary sector. It is not only companies that have been classified as part of a sector in some schemes, since governments and their services (such as the police or military), as well as nonprofit organizations (such as charities or research associations), can also be seen as part of that sector.

To classify a business as a service, one can use classification systems such as the United Nations' International Standard Industrial Classification standard, the United States' Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code system and its new replacement, the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS), the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE) in the EU and similar systems elsewhere. These governmental classification systems have a first-level of hierarchy that reflects whether the economic goods are tangible or intangible.

For purposes of finance and market research, market-based classification systems such as the Global Industry Classification Standard and the Industry Classification Benchmark are used to classify businesses that participate in the service sector. Unlike governmental classification systems, the first level of market-based classification systems divides the economy into functionally related markets or industries. The second or third level of these hierarchies then reflects whether goods or services are produced.

Theory of progression
For the last 100 years, there has been a substantial shift from the primary and secondary sectors to the tertiary sector in industrialized countries. This shift is called tertiarisation. The tertiary sector is now the largest sector of the economy in the Western world, and is also the fastest-growing sector. In examining the growth of the service sector in the early nineties, the globalist Kenichi Ohmae noted that:

"In the United States, 70 per cent of the workforce works in the service sector; in Japan, 60 per cent, and in Taiwan, 50 per cent. These are not necessarily busboys and live-in maids. Numerous of them are in the skilled category. They are earning as much as manufacturing employees, and often more."

Economies tend to follow a developmental progression that takes them from heavy reliance on agriculture and mining, toward the development of manufacturing (e.g. automobiles, textiles, shipbuilding, steel) and finally toward a more service-based structure. The first economy to follow this path in the modern world was the United Kingdom. The speed at which other economies have made the transition to service-based (or "post-industrial") economies has increased over time.

Historically, manufacturing tended to be more open to international trade and competition than services. However, with dramatic cost reduction and speed and reliability improvements in the transportation of people and the communication of information, the service sector now includes some of the most intensive international competition, despite residual protectionism.

Issues for service providers
Service providers face obstacles selling services that goods-sellers rarely face. Services are intangible, making it difficult for potential customers to understand what they will receive and what value it will hold for them. Indeed, some, such as consultants and providers of investment services, offer no guarantees of the value for the price paid.

Since the quality of most services depends largely on the quality of the individuals providing the services, "people costs" are usually a high fraction of service costs. Whereas a manufacturer may use technology, simplification, and other techniques to lower the cost of goods sold, the service provider often faces an unrelenting pattern of increasing costs.

Product differentiation is often difficult. For example, how does one choose one investment adviser over another, since they are often seen to provide identical services. Charging a premium for services is usually an option only for the most established firms, who charge extra based upon brand recognition.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Tertiary sector of the economy


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Primary sector of the economy

The primary sector of the economy includes any industry involved in the extraction and production of raw materials, such as farming, logging, fishing, forestry and mining.

The primary sector tends to make up a larger portion of the economy in developing countries than it does in developed countries. For example, in 2018, agriculture, forestry, and fishing comprised more than 15% of GDP in sub-Saharan Africa but less than 1% of GDP in North America.

In developed countries the primary sector has become more technologically advanced, enabling for example the mechanization of farming, as compared with lower-tech methods in poorer countries. More developed economies may invest additional capital in primary means of production: for example, in the United States corn belt, combine harvesters pick the corn, and sprayers spray large amounts of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides, producing a higher yield than is possible using less capital-intensive techniques. These technological advances and investment allow the primary sector to employ a smaller workforce, so developed countries tend to have a smaller percentage of their workforce involved in primary activities, instead having a higher percentage involved in the secondary and tertiary sectors.

title: Primary sector of the economy


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Secondary sector of the economy

In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in construction.

This sector generally takes the output of the primary sector (i.e. raw materials like metals, wood) and creates finished goods suitable for sale to domestic businesses or consumers and for export (via distribution through the tertiary sector). Many of these industries consume large quantities of energy, require factories and use machinery; they are often classified as light or heavy based on such quantities. This also produces waste materials and waste heat that may cause environmental problems or pollution (see negative externalities). Examples include textile production, car manufacturing, and handicraft.

Manufacturing is an important activity in promoting economic growth and development. Nations that export manufactured products tend to generate higher marginal GDP growth, which supports higher incomes and therefore marginal tax revenue needed to fund such government expenditures as health care and infrastructure. Among developed countries, it is an important source of well-paying jobs for the middle class (e.g., engineering) to facilitate greater social mobility for successive generations on the economy. Currently, an estimated 20% of the labor force in the United States is involved in the secondary industry.

The secondary sector depends on the primary sector for the raw materials necessary for production. Countries that primarily produce agricultural and other raw materials (i.e., primary sector) tend to grow slowly and remain either under-developed or developing economies. The value added through the transformation of raw materials into finished goods reliably generates greater profitability, which underlies the faster growth of developed economies.

title: Secondary sector of the economy


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Imaginary number

An imaginary number is the product of a real number and the imaginary unit $i$, which is defined by its property $i^{2} = −1$. The square of an imaginary number $i$ is $−b^{2}$. For example, $5i$ is an imaginary number, and its square is $−25$. The number 0|zero is considered to be both real and imaginary.

Originally coined in the 17th century by René Descartes as a derogatory term and regarded as fictitious or useless, the concept gained wide acceptance following the work of Leonhard Euler (in the 18th century) and Augustin-Louis Cauchy and Carl Friedrich Gauss (in the early 19th century).

An imaginary number $bi$ can be added to a real number $j$ to form a complex number of the form $a + bi$, where the real numbers $i$ and $bi$ are called, respectively, the real part and the imaginary part of the complex number.

History
Although the Greek mathematician and engineer Heron of Alexandria is noted as the first to present a calculation involving the square root of a negative number, it was Rafael Bombelli who first set down the rules for multiplication of complex numbers in 1572. The concept had appeared in print earlier, such as in work by Gerolamo Cardano. At the time, imaginary numbers and negative numbers were poorly understood and were regarded by some as fictitious or useless, much as zero once was. Many other mathematicians were slow to adopt the use of imaginary numbers, including René Descartes, who wrote about them in his La Géométrie in which he coined the term imaginary and meant it to be derogatory. The use of imaginary numbers was not widely accepted until the work of Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) and Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855). The geometric significance of complex numbers as points in a plane was first described by Caspar Wessel (1745–1818).

In 1843, William Rowan Hamilton extended the idea of an axis of imaginary numbers in the plane to a four-dimensional space of quaternion imaginaries in which three of the dimensions are analogous to the imaginary numbers in the complex field.

Geometric interpretation

Geometrically, imaginary numbers are found on the vertical axis of the complex number plane, which allows them to be presented perpendicular to the real axis. One way of viewing imaginary numbers is to consider a standard number line positively increasing in magnitude to the right and negatively increasing in magnitude to the left. At 0 on the $a$-axis, a $a$-axis can be drawn with "positive" direction going up; "positive" imaginary numbers then increase in magnitude upwards, and "negative" imaginary numbers increase in magnitude downwards. This vertical axis is often called the "imaginary axis" and is denoted $$i \mathbb{R},$$ $$\mathbb{I},$$ or $ℑ$.

In this representation, multiplication by $b$ corresponds to a counterclockwise rotation of 90 degrees about the origin, which is a quarter of a circle. Multiplication by $−i$ corresponds to a clockwise rotation of 90 degrees about the origin. Similarly, multiplying by a purely imaginary number $x$, with $y$ a real number, both causes a counterclockwise rotation about the origin by 90 degrees and scales the answer by a factor of $i$. When $b < 0$, this can instead be described as a clockwise rotation by 90 degrees and a scaling by $|b|$.

Square roots of negative numbers
Care must be used when working with imaginary numbers that are expressed as the principal values of the square roots of negative numbers. For example, if $bi$ and $b$ are both positive real numbers, the following chain of equalities appears reasonable at first glance:
 * $$\textstyle

\sqrt{x \cdot y \vphantom{t}} =\sqrt{(-x) \cdot (-y)} \mathrel{\stackrel{\text{ (fallacy) }}{=}} \sqrt{-x\vphantom{ty}} \cdot \sqrt{-y\vphantom{ty}} = i\sqrt{x\vphantom{ty}} \cdot i\sqrt{y\vphantom{ty}} = -\sqrt{x \cdot y \vphantom{ty}}\,. $$

But the result is clearly nonsense. The step where the square root was broken apart was illegitimate. (See Mathematical fallacy.)

title: Imaginary number


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Indictment

An indictment is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an indictable offense, an offense that requires an indictment.

Australia
Section 80 of the Constitution of Australia provides that "the trial on indictment of any offence against any law of the Commonwealth shall be by jury". The High Court of Australia has consistently used a narrow interpretation of this clause, allowing the Parliament of Australia to define which offences proceed on indictment rather than conferring a universal right to a jury trial. Section 4G of the Crimes Act 1914 provides that "offences against a law of the Commonwealth punishable by imprisonment for a period exceeding 12 months are indictable offences, unless the contrary intention appears".

Canada
A direct indictment is one in which the case is sent directly to trial before a preliminary inquiry is completed or when the accused has been discharged by a preliminary inquiry. It is meant to be an extraordinary, rarely used power to ensure that those who should be brought to trial are in a timely manner or where an error of judgment is seen to have been made in the preliminary inquiry. In the aftermath of the 2016 Jordan decision, in which the Supreme Court of Canada imposed time limits on the Crown to bring criminal cases to trial, the Crown has started to use the procedure more frequently.

England and Wales
In England and Wales (except in private prosecutions by individuals) an indictment is issued by the public prosecutor (in most cases this will be the Crown Prosecution Service) on behalf of the Crown, which is the nominal plaintiff in all public prosecutions under English law. This is why a public prosecution of a person whose surname is Smith would be referred to in writing as "R v Smith" (or alternatively as "Regina v Smith" or "Rex v Smith" depending on the sex of the Sovereign, Regina and Rex being Latin for "Queen" and "King" and in either case may informally be pronounced as such) and when cited orally in court would be pronounced "the Crown against Smith".

All proceedings on indictment must be brought before the Crown Court. By virtue of practice directions issued under section 75(1) of the Senior Courts Act 1981, an indictment must be tried by a High Court judge, a circuit judge or a recorder (which of these depends on the offence).

As to the form of an indictment, see the Indictments Act 1915 and the Indictment Rules 1971 made thereunder.

The Indictment Rules 1971 were revoked by the Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2007 (on the whole) incorporated into the Criminal Procedure Rules 2010. The form and content and the service of an indictment are governed by Rule 14 of the CPR 2012. Additional guidance is contained in the Consolidated Criminal Practice Direction Part IV.34.

As to the preferring of a bill of indictment and the signing of an indictment, see section 2 of the Administration of Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1933 and the Indictments (Procedure) Rules 1971 (S.I. 1971/2084) made thereunder, as amended and modified by the Indictments (Procedure) (Amendment) Rules 1983 (S.I. 1983/284), the Indictments (Procedure) (Amendment) Rules 1988 (S.I. 1988/1783), the Indictments (Procedure) (Amendment) Rules 1992 (S.I. 1992/284), the Indictments (Procedure) (Amendment) Rules 1997 (S.I. 1997/711), the Indictments (Procedure) (Modification) Rules 1998 (S.I. 1998/3045) and the Indictments (Procedure) (Amendment) Rules 2000 (S.I. 2000/3360).

Northern Ireland
See the Indictments Act (Northern Ireland) 1945.

Scotland
In Scotland, all of these cases brought in the High Court of Justiciary are brought in the name of the Lord Advocate and will be tried on indictment. In a sheriff court where trials proceed using the solemn proceedings they will also be tried on indictment and are brought in the name of the Lord Advocate. All solemn indictments are designed in the manner Her (or His) Majesty's Advocate v Smith, or, more frequently HMA v Smith.

United States
The Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution states in part: "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia when in actual service in time of War or public danger." The requirement of an indictment has not been incorporated against the states; therefore, even though the federal government uses grand juries and indictments, not all states do. As of 2019, all states besides Pennsylvania and Connecticut still use grand juries to indict suspects for some offenses.

In many jurisdictions that use grand juries, prosecutors often have a choice between seeking an indictment from a grand jury and 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, at which a judge determines whether there was probable cause to arrest the suspect who is in custody. If the judge finds such probable cause, they 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 where, when, and how the defendant allegedly committed the offense. Each offense is usually set out in a separate count. Indictments for complex crimes, particularly those involving conspiracy or numerous counts, may run to hundreds of pages. In other cases, however, an indictment for a crime as serious as murder may consist of a single sheet of paper.

Indictable offenses are tried by jury, unless the accused waives the right to a jury trial. Even though the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution mandates the right to a jury trial in any criminal prosecution, the vast majority of criminal cases in the US are resolved by the plea-bargaining process.

Types
A sealed indictment stays non-public, for various reasons, until it is unsealed (for example, once the indicted is arrested or notified by police). A superseding indictment takes the place of the previously active one. A speaking indictment goes beyond the legally required statement of the elements of the charged crime(s) and also includes a narrative of the alleged underlying acts in more detail.

title: Indictment