D'Auria v. State

In D'Auria v. State, 270 Ga. 499, 512 S.E.2d 266 (1999), the Supreme Court of Georgia held that an indictment is insufficient unless it contains the elements of the offense intended to be charged, sufficiently apprises the defendant of the crimes against which she must defend at trial, and is specific enough to protect her against another prosecution for the same offense. Although recitation of the statute may, in certain cases, be a sufficient, though not desirable, method of apprising a defendant of the charges against him, recitation of portions of the statute is not sufficient if, reading the accusation together with the statute, a defendant is unable to determine which of his acts are alleged to be criminal in nature. Id.