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no bill:
n. (18c)
1. A grand jury‘s notation that insufficient evidence exists for an indictment on a criminal charge <the grand jury returned a no bill instead of the indictment the prosecutors expected>. <the grand jury no-billed three of the charges>. — no-bill, vb. [1]
1. An indorsement by a grand jury on an indictment, indicating “not found” or “not a true bill.” [2]
1. An indorsement meaning not found or not a true bill, which a grand jury enters on an indictment when it declines to indict. [3]
not a true bill:
1. An indorsement that a grand jury enters on a bill of indictment when it declines to indict.
not found:
1. Words placed on a bill of indictment, meaning that the grand jury has insufficient evidence to support a true bill.
1. An indorsement that a grand jury enters on a bill of indictment when it declines to indict. [3]
ignoramus:
[Law Latin] (16c)
1. Hist. We do not know. * This notation, when written on a bill of indictment, indicated the grand jury rejection of the bill. [1]
Excerpt from William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Law of England:
“When the grand jury have heard the evidence, if they think it a groundless accusation, they used formerly to endorse on the back of the bill, “ignoramus,” or, we know nothing of it: intimating that, though the facts might possibly be true, that truth did not appear to them: but now they assert in English, more absolutely, ‘not a true bill:” and then the party is discharged without farther answer.“ [4]
References:
Disclaimer: All material throughout this website is compiled in accordance with Fair Use.
[1]: Black’s Law Dictionary Deluxe Tenth Edition by Henry Campbell Black & Editor in Chief Bryan A. Garner. ISBN: 978-0-314-62130-6
[2]: Ballantine’s Law Dictionary with Pronunciations
Third Edition by James A. Ballantine (James Arthur 1871-1949). Edited by William S. Anderson. © 1969 by THE LAWYER’S CO-OPERATIVE PUBLISHING COMPANY. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 68-30931
[3]: Ballantine’s Law Dictionary Legal Assistant Edition
by Jack Ballantine (James Arthur 1871-1949). Doctored by Jack G. Handler, J.D. © 1994 Delmar by Thomson Learning. ISBN 0-8273-4874-6.
[4]: 4 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 301 (1769).
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