Mangum v. State

ROBERTS, J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. In order for an indictment to be legally sufficient, it must, among other things, contain all the essential elements of the crime charged. The essential elements of murder are that: (1) the defendant killed the victim, (2) without authority of law, and (3) with deliberate design to effect his death. Gerald Mangum pled guilty to murder following his indictment of the charge in 1980. He now argues that his indictment was fatally defective because it did not contain the phrase, “not in necessary self-defense.” However, be cause his indictment contained the word…