TDCAA 'ways to amend' says

"the State may proffer an amended version of a photocopy of the original indictment & the amended photocopy need only be incorporated into the record under the direction of the trial court with the affirmative assent of the defense"

Is the only difference between this and asking the court to interlineate the original that I am the one doing the writing in & crossing out?

My judge would probably appreciate that and defense has no objections to the change. Do we need a hearing on this or -- this sounds strange -- an agreed motion? Or an order than states, "Is hereby amended as follows: [insert entirely new imformation]"?

[This message was edited by Waco on 02-14-08 at .]

[This message was edited by Waco on 02-14-08 at .]

Our practice here in Parker County is to obtain an order authorizing the indictment to be amended instructing the clerk of the court to interlineate the original indictment. If the amendement is for the purposes of enhancements, a copy of the order authorizing the changes is attached to the original indictment.

As far as a hearing, I'm not aware of anything that would require a hearing. If the indictment change is agreed, I would obtain defense counsel's signature on an agreed order so that you have evidence (when the inevitable writ comes) that this was agreed to by defense counsel.

The best practice is to accomplish the changes in open court in the presence of the judge and defense attorney. Given the status of the indictment as a public record, we have the judge make the actual physical changes to the original charging instrument.