Legal Question in Criminal Law in New York

Re: Indictment Letter

The court must give you at least two days notice of the date for the arraignment on the indictment.

Re: Indictment Letter

I have never heard of an "indictment letter". What I am familiar with is a cross notice to appear before a grand jury. The filing of such a cross notice by a defendant, both orally and in writing with the Court and the District Attorney, is used to cause the District Attorney to inform the defendant when the grand jury is being convened. The filing of such a cross notice affords the defendant an opportunity to appear before the grand jury if he/she so chooses but does not require it. Usually, however, what occurs is that a person is arrested and a felony complaint is filed. After the person is arraigned on the felony complaint the District Attorney gathers the evidence and presents it to a grand jury to seek an indictment. If the grand jury agrees to hand down an indictment, it issues a "true bill" or indication that it has voted to indict the defendant and hold the case over for trial. The defendant is brought back to court and arraigned again on the indictment and the case proceeds to pretrial discovery and eventually to trial. Hope this answers your question.