Criminal law experts called the indictment "very unusual."

"Criminal law doesn't prosecute a failure to act. It only prosecutes acts," said George Thomas, professor of law at Rutgers School of Law in Newark, N.J.

Last year, Leonardo DiPasquale died of a heroin overdose at the home of his parents, Mary and Lewis Hockenbury. The couple has not been accused of selling or giving drugs to their son, but prosecutor Katharine Errickson said that after hearing all the evidence grand jurors "decided on their own they wanted to consider a charge of manslaughter against the parents."

If convicted, the couple would face up to 10 years in prison.

Recently, some U.S. states have passed laws that hold parents liable for a child's crimes. But Sandra Guerra Thompson, a law professor at the University of Houston Law Center, said courts have consistently declared such laws unconstitutional.

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