ARRAIGNMENT - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

ARRAIGNMENTAuthored

The Law Mind • 1034 words

Definition

A formal court proceeding in which a criminal defendant is called before the court, informed of the charges against them, and asked to enter a plea. At modern arraignment, the defendant typically pleads guilty, not guilty, or no contest (nolo contendere). The arraignment also serves as an early checkpoint for bail determinations, appointment of counsel, and scheduling of future proceedings.

In historical practice, arraignment was understood more narrowly: the formal act of calling a prisoner to the bar, reading the indictment aloud, and requiring the defendant to acknowledge being the named party — often by holding up their hand. The entry of a plea was treated as a separate subsequent act. Modern practice collapses these steps into a single proceeding.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The formal charging of a defendant with an offense; in many jurisdictions it includes their response in the form of a plea, typically as guilty, not guilty, or no contest.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The act of arraigning, or the state of being arraigned; the act of calling and setting a prisoner before a court to answer to an indictment or complaint. Also used figuratively to mean a calling to account for faults; accusation.

The common and legal meanings are close but not identical. In ordinary language, arraignment has occasionally been used loosely to mean any public accusation or reckoning — Dryden's satirical use being a clear example. Researchers reading historical non-legal texts should be alert to this figurative usage, which carries no procedural significance. In legal sources, arraignment is a technical term of art with a specific place in the criminal procedural sequence.

Core Elements

The traditional components of arraignment, as reflected in historical sources, were:

Calling the defendant to the bar by name. The court summons the defendant to stand before it, establishing physical and formal presence.

Identification of the defendant as the named party. Historically accomplished by requiring the defendant to hold up their hand — not as an oath, but as a means of confirming identity as the person named in the indictment. Bouvier notes this gesture was not indispensable in its own right, only the identification it accomplished.

Reading or stating the charge. The substance of the indictment is communicated to the defendant.

Entry of plea. The defendant responds — guilty, not guilty, or another recognized plea. In earlier practice this step was formally distinct; modern procedure treats it as integral to arraignment itself.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers encountering arraignment in historical sources must be careful not to assume modern procedure. The historical dictionaries consistently define arraignment as the act of calling the defendant to the bar and obtaining identification — stopping short of the plea. In older English practice, the plea was a separate event that followed arraignment. Modern American procedure, by contrast, folds identification, charge recitation, and plea entry into a unified arraignment proceeding. A 19th-century source describing arraignment may therefore be describing only a portion of what a contemporary court would call arraignment.

The hand-raising ritual noted by Bouvier and Burrill is obsolete in American courts but appears regularly in older English reports and treatises. It was a formal ceremony of acknowledgment, not a sworn act. Researchers who encounter references to a defendant "holding up his hand" should understand this as historical arraignment procedure, not testimony or oath-taking.

In military law, arraignment operates within a distinct procedural framework. The Law Mind Military, Veterans & Admiralty Law Encyclopedia addresses courts-martial arraignment separately, where the governing authority is the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Military Rules of Evidence rather than civilian criminal procedure rules. Researchers moving between civilian and military sources should not assume procedural equivalence.

Arraignment is also jurisdictionally significant as the point at which the Sixth Amendment right to counsel fully attaches in the modern framework — making it a critical procedural marker in constitutional criminal procedure research.

Historical Dictionary Support

All four source dictionaries converge on the core definition: arraignment is the calling of a defendant to the bar to answer the accusation in the indictment. The phrasing is nearly identical across Black's (both editions) and Bouvier's, suggesting a shared tradition of formulation.

Burrill adds the most texture, noting the historical ceremony of making the prisoner hold up their hand "or otherwise own himself to be the party charged" — a concession that the hand-raising was one form of identification, not the only one. Burrill also gestures toward older origins, connecting the proceeding to choices between modes of trial (assise versus trial by battle), which situates arraignment within a much older English procedural landscape than the other dictionaries acknowledge.

Bouvier is the most procedurally detailed of the historical sources, explaining that the hand-raising was for identification purposes and noting explicitly that it was not absolutely required — suggesting even in his era there was flexibility in practice.

None of the historical dictionaries address the modern role of arraignment as a vehicle for bail review, counsel appointment, or scheduling. These functions, now routine, are products of 20th-century procedural development and will not appear in 19th-century sources.

Jurisdictional Note

Federal practice and most state systems treat arraignment as the proceeding at which a plea is entered, but timing and procedure vary. Some states conduct an initial appearance and arraignment as separate events; others merge them. In felony cases, arraignment often follows indictment or information; in misdemeanor cases, it may occur at first appearance. Military arraignment under the UCMJ follows a distinct procedural path governed by the Manual for Courts-Martial.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Arraignment and Entry of Plea — The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia
Courts-Martial Procedure — Investigation (Article 32), Arraignment, Trial, and Sentencing — The Law Mind Military, Veterans & Admiralty Law Encyclopedia

ARRAIGNMENTmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

In criminal prac- tice. Calling the defendant to the bar of the court, to answer the accusation contained in the indictment. ARRAIGNS, CLERK OF. In English law. An assistant to the clerk of assise.

ARRAIGNMENTmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

In Criminal Practice. Calling the defendant to the bar of the court, to answer the accusation contained in the indictment. The first step in the proceeding consists in calling the defendant to the bar by his name, and commanding him to hold up his hand. This is done for the purpose of completely iden- tifying the prisoner as the person named in the in- dictment. The holding up his hand is not, how- ever, indispensable; for if the prisoner should re- fuse to do so, he may be identified by any admission that he is the person intended; 1 W. Bla. 33. See Archb. Cr. Pl. 128. The second step is the reading the indict- ment to the accused person. This is done to enable him fully to understand the charge to be produced against him. The mode in which it is read is, after saying, "A B, hold up your hand," to proceed, "you stand indicted by the name of A B, late of, etc., for that you, on, etc.," and then go through the whole of the indictment. The third step is to ask the prisoner, "How say you (A B), are you guilty, or not guilty?" Upon this, if the prisoner confesses the charge, and it appears to the satisfaction of the judge that he rightly comprehends the effect of his plea, the confession is recorded, and nothing further is done till judgment. If, on the contrary, he answers, "Not guilty," that plea is entered for him, and the clerk or attorney-general replies that he is guilty; when an issue is formed; 1 Mass. 95; see 4 Bla. Com. c. xxv. The holding up of the hand is no longer obligatory in England, though still main- tained in some of the United States with the quali- fication that if the defendant refuses to hold up his hand, but confesses that he is the person named, it is enough; Whart. Cr. Pl. & Pr. 9th ed. $ 699. In cases whero arraignment of the defendant is re quired, a failure to arraign is fatal; 54 Ind. 159; 81 Mich. 471; 3 Pinn. (Wis.) 867; 1 Tex. Ap. 408; 52 Cal. 480. See contra, 12 Kan. 550. In cases of a mis- trial (58 Ga. 85), or removal to another court (89 Md. 355), there need not be a fresh arraignment. If the defendant, when called upon, makes no an- swer, and it is a matter of doubt whether or not he is mute of malice, the court may direct a jury to be forthwith impanelled and sworn, to try whether the prisoner is mute of malice or ex visitatione Dei; and such jury may consist of any twelve men who may happen to be present. If a person is found to be mute ez visitatione Dei, the court in its discre- tion will use such means as may be sufficient to en- able the defendant to understand the charge and make his answer; and if this is found impracti- cable, a plea of not guilty will be entered, and the trial proceed. But if the jury return a verdict that me is mute fraudulently and wilfully, the court will pass sentence as upon a conviction; 1 Mass. 103; 10 Metc. Mass. 222; Archb. Cr. Pl. 129; Carringt. Cr. Law 57; 8 C. & Κ. 121: Rosc. Cr. Ev. 8th ed. 199. See the case of a deaf person who could not be in- duced to plead; 1 Leach, Cr. Cas. 451; of a person deaf and dumb; 1 Leach, Cr. Cas. 102; 14 Mass. 207; 7 C. & P. 508; 6 Cox, Cr. Cas. 886; 8 C. & Κ. 328; 1 Honst. Del. Cr. Cas. 291.

ARRAIGNMENTmain

Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867

In criminal law. parties in that proceeding, and signified to The form or ceremony of calling a prisoner make a solemn choice of the assise as a to the bar, and (in treason or felony) makmode of trial, in preference to the duellum ing him hold up his hand, or otherwise own or battel, and to declare such choice openhimself to be the party charged; readingly. Spelman, voc. Adrhamire. So, when

ARRAIGNMENTn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

The act of arraigning, or the state of being arraigned; the act of calling and setting a prisoner before a court to answer to an indictment or complaint. A calling to an account to faults; accusation. In the sixth satire, which seems only an Arraignment of the whole sex, there is a latent admonition. Dryden.

arraignmentnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

The formal charging of a defendant with an offense; in many jurisdictions it includes their response in the form of a plea, typically as guilty, not guilty, or no contest.

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