indict a ham sandwich

ɪnˈdaɪt‿ə ˌhæm ˈsændwɪt͡ʃ

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#1·3h ago

(intransitive, chiefly, US, criminal law, humorous, hyperbolic, idiomatic) Of a grand jury: to charge a person with a crime, despite a perceived lack of evidence.

Advocates of the grand jury say it is the only shield in the criminal justice system between police and prosecutors and the accused. But critics say the grand jury doesn't shield anybody because the prosecutor runs the show. "The distric…

Origin: Possibly alluding to ham sandwich. The term was popularized by the American jurist Sol Wachtler (born 1930) who used it in 1985 shortly after his appointment as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals when expressing the view that the use of grand juries to bring indictments should be abolished: see the 1985 quotation. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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