LAW, CRIMINAL. 



LAW, ntlMINAL. 



: 

 tsctwioal 



t him. If, however, UM 







error merely, in the indictment' 

 polluted (gain. It tli 

 u to be ^^^ to uui 



uah penon had never 

 liob such judgment i 

 nition only be crroneo 

 nt be reversed for some 

 subsequent process, the 

 judgment be confirmed, 

 to the remainder of his 



Where there U nothing to arrest or bar a judgment, the execution of 

 H may be prevented by a pardon received after sentence pronounced; 

 bat, without express words of restitution, no property which the 

 nffander forfeited on his conviction or attainder, is thereby revested in 



him ; nor, unless where the pardon ia by act of parliament, U the cor- 

 raptioa of hi* blood removed, except ai ragardi thuaejif hu blood burn 



" 



alter the 



of men pardon, nor are any of the" consequences at 

 prevented. 



In capital oases the execution of a . 

 by a reprieve, either at the discretion of the Crown, or, where substan 

 tial justice requires it, of the court. There are two instances, how 

 ever, in which the court is bound to grant a reprieve, viz. : 1 , wheco 

 the aflbndnr. if a female, U pregnant ; 2, where the offender becomes 

 insane after judgment. If the offender allege that sho is pregnant or 

 the court have reason to suppose that she is so, a jury of twelve 

 natrons is to be hnpannclod with all possible despatch to try- whether 

 or not she be quick with child. In case they find in the affirmative. 

 the court respites the offender from time to time until she be delivered 

 of a child or It is no longer possible hi the course of nature that ehe 

 should be so. After her delivery or where such delivery is no longer 

 possible as before mentioned, or if the jury find that she is not quick 

 with child, the court at the expiration of the period for which it has 

 respited her, proceeds to award execution against her. 



Where insanity U alleged, the court will reprieve the prisoner, if 

 found to be insane by means of an ex of da inquiry, or if his insanity 

 otherwise sufficiently appear. 



Although there is no right of appeal in" criminal cases, a court has 

 been recently formed for the consideration of crown cases reserved. 

 A practice, bad long existed for the judges on circuit to receive any 

 objections taken on behalf of the accused, which appeared to them 

 worthy of mature consideration, for the opinion of all the judges; 

 and if they, or a majority of them, came to the conclusion that the 

 objection was well founded, the defendant was recommended to the 

 crown for a pardon. Although the decision of the judges in such 

 oesns was known, the reasoning by which they arrived at the con- 

 clusion did not transpire : while the power of reserving questions 

 of law was not possessed by the courts often most in need of the 

 assistance of the judges on such points, namely, the courts of quarter 

 sessions. Now, however, by the statute 11 & 12 Viet. c. 78, i 

 that " it is expedient to provide a better mode of deciding any 

 difficult question of law arising in criminal trials," it is enacted that 

 when any person bos bera convicted of any treason, felony, or mis- 

 demeanor before any court of oyer and terminer, or gaol delivery, or 

 court of quarter sessions, the judge, or commissioners, or justices of 

 the peace before whom the case has been tried, may in his or their 

 discretion, reserve any question of law which has arisen on the trial 

 for the consideration of the justices of either bench and barons of the 

 exchequer ; and may respite execution, or postpone the giving of judg- 

 ment until such question has been decided, and in the meantime either 

 commit the person convicted to prison or admit him to bail. 



the purpose of considering such questions (which arc transmitted 

 to them in the form of a special case) the judges meet, five at the least 

 being required, including one chief justice or the chief Uu-on, to con- 

 stitute a court for the consideration of crown oases reserved, as it is 

 termed, on one or more days in each term ; and then in open court 

 deliver their judgment either II[HPII or without argument, reversing, 

 affirming, or amending the judgment already given, or where the con- 

 viction U affirmed and no judgment has been already given, ordering 

 when and where it shall beyiven. 



The court which determines these reserved questions of criminal 

 law, Is not a court of criminal jurisdiction or apiwal in the legal or 

 ordinary eense of the term. It merely assists and guides with iu 

 opinion the determination of the court or judge below, in whose dis- 

 cretion U exclmavely vested the reservation of the cost-, and to H hom. 

 or to hie suooesenr, the judgment (If the conviction be affirmed) is 

 



Hbotild the execution of a judgment bo n. -it her [prevented nor 

 euenended, or, having been suspended, should have ceased to bo so, 

 mich judgment is to be executed according to law by tho sheriff or 

 other authorised person or hie deputy. In capital cases, if the offender, 

 after hanging, be taken down before he bo dead, ho is to be hanged 



again until he be dead. 

 As regards the 



- 



r in whirh the various judgment* which may 

 m -~ J -it are to be executed, the subject is too 



With 



extensive to be further treated of in an article like the present. 

 As to the restitution of stole*, property, see KKSTITI'TIOH. 

 respect to the expanses of prosecutions for indictable offences, the 

 general provUions on the subject are contained in 7 <),. IV. c. 01. 

 According to these the court before which any person ls prosecuted for 

 felony or the following misdemeanors, namely, assaults with intent to 



commit felony; attempts to commit felony ; riots; receiving stolen 

 property; assaults ujion peace officers in the execution of theii 

 or upon persons acting in their aid ; inflect r breach of duty by 

 peace-officers ; aaraulta in pursuance of conspiracies to raise the rule 

 of wages ; obtaining property by false pretences ; indecent expo 

 the person ; perjury and subornation of perjury, may, at the request 

 of the prosecutor or any other person appearing on recognisance or 

 subpona to prosecute or give evidence, order payment of the costs and 

 expenses incurred by the prosecutor in preferring the indictment, and 

 also the reasonable expenses of the prosecutor and witnesses i 

 prosecution in attending before the grand jury and otherwise carrying 

 on the prosecution ; and also, whether a bill of indictment be preferred 

 or not, may order the reasonable expenses incurred by any person by 

 reason of attending on any such recognisance or subpoena (such 

 attendance, where no indictment is preferred, appearing to be in bond 

 .tide obedience to the recognisance or subpoena), and, except in cases of 

 misdemeanor, by reason of attending before the examining magistrate, 



and also, except in respect of attendance. In-: 



cases of misdemeanor, compensation for trouble and loss of 



It is difficult to discover upon what principle the selection of the. 

 cases of misdemeanor in respect of which the court is empowered to 

 award costs under the above statute was made. Subsequent statutes 

 have however extended the power to indictments for conceal) < 

 birth, fraudulently procuring the defilement of women or girls mi'lrr 

 twenty-one, assaults upon workhouse officers, or relieving officers, 

 neglecting to provide for, or assaulting apprentices or servants; 

 offences under the statute 14 & 15 Viet c. It), compi; 

 assaults on the person, being found by night armed with, intent to 

 commit burglary, &o. ; carnally knowing and abusing girls ; abduction 

 of unmarried girls under sixteen ; conspiring to charge any person 

 with felony, and conspiracy to commit felony ; and assaults pro 

 by direction of justices. Other cases might with ju-- 

 and it may be a question whether, under certain limit. it i- 

 power ought not oven to be extended to the expenses of tl. 

 witnesses. The costs are taxed by the officer of the. court, and ]uid 

 by the treasurer of the county, who iu repaid by the Treasury out of 

 the consolidated fund. (15 t 16 Viet. c. 82.) 



OjfcHcei punitlialjte o ' . 



It would be inconsistent with the limits of the prv.- 

 i detailed account of the various offences punishable on KID 

 conviction, in numlicr fur exceeding those which aie indictable. Th< v 

 relate, however, principally to ale and beer houses, apprentices, putty 

 assaults, the Customs and Excise, distresses, drunkenness, friendly 

 societies, game, hawkers and pedlars, highways, turnpike roads. 

 Luefts not amounting to larceny, malicious injuries to property, pawn- 

 brokers, railways, stage and hackney carriages, servants, vagrants, weights 

 ni.l measures, and the numerous offences punishable under tho Metro- 

 politan Police Acts. 



Summary proceedings, except in the case of contempts of the BUI>C- 

 rior courts of justice (which those Courts have been i. 

 used to punish by attachment), were wholly unknown to the common 

 aw. Their institution appears to have originated partly in the neces- 

 sity for relieving the ordinary tribunals from the im; vase of 

 labour which would otherwise have been cast upon th , , i j,, 

 multiplicity of new offences of a trivial kind which were yearly < . 

 'or the protection of society as it advanced in [population and ( 

 lion, and partly in the desire to do more speedy jn.-tice in the . 

 such trilling offences than would have been possible had the*. 

 made indictable. In the ease, of indictable offences . not in 

 general, as before observed, be put upon his trial until a true bill has 

 jeen found against him by a grand jury, and cannot 1 

 except by the verdict of a petit jury : to have made all these 

 iiinutc offences indictable would therefore have entailed upon the 

 class of persona qualified to servo as jurors a frequency ol 

 which would have been found to be most troublesome and harassing. 

 Accordingly numerous acts of parliament have from time t 

 vested in one or more jut-tic. . of the peace or other persons the ; 

 a try parties accused of trifling offences without the intervention of a 

 jury. The extension, however, of this mode of proceeding haw been 

 dways regarded with extreme jealousy. 



The course of proceeding before justices, as far as regards nummary 



>im. tioiiH, was until recently regulated by a gn -at variety of t.itutes 



ng from the 1 KHz. c. 5, to the tj'& 7 V\ m. I V. , . I |. These 



acts have be. . itcd, and the duties of the justices el 



defined by the statute 11 4 12 Viet. c. 43, which provides a procedure 



applicable to the great majority of caws in which a Mnnnjury con- 



!er may be mode by justices of the peace out of seo.- 

 \\ I.. ! an information is \. t \<\ before a justice or justices oi 

 .hat any person ha i. or is suspected to Lave committed any 



offence or act for which hu ia liable bylaw, upon a summary com 

 'or the same, to be imprisoned or fined, or otherwise punished, and 

 who, when a complaint is mode to any justice or justice-*, upon winch 

 le or Uiey have authority by law to make any order for the payment 

 of money or otherwise, such justice or justices are to issue 

 n a prescribed form directed to the party charged, Citing shortly the 

 matter of such information or complaint, and requiring him to appear 

 and answer the same, and be further dealt with according to law. 



