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Peine forte et dure (Law French for "hard and forceful punishment") was a method of torture formerly used in the common law legal system, in which a defendant who refused to plead ("stood mute") would be subjected to having heavier and heavier stones placed upon their chest until a plea was entered, or death resulted.
Peine forte et dure (Law French for "forceful and hard punishment") was a method of torture formerly used in the common law legal system, in which a defendant who refused to plead ("stood mute") would be subjected to having heavier and heavier stones placed upon his or her chest until a plea was entered, or as the weight of the stones on the chest became too great for the condemned to breathe ...
According to the law at the time, a person who refused to plead could not be tried. To avoid people cheating justice, the legal remedy for refusing to plead was "peine forte et dure". In this process, prisoners were stripped naked and heavy boards were laid on their bodies. Then rocks or boulders were placed on the boards.
Stourton had been most reluctant to plead to the indictment, until he was reminded by the judges that he faced the horrific penalty of peine forte et dure (being pressed to death under heavy stones) if he did not. William Hartgill, described as a "surly and cross old man", was a neighbour with whom Stourton had long been on bad terms.
The last exception was peine forte et dure, which could be used on someone who refused to plead guilty or not guilty, which was abolished in 1772. [15] Torture was prohibited in Scotland in 1708 after the Acts of Union 1707. These prohibitions applied only in Britain, not in territories of the British Empire unless explicitly introduced there.
Spanish police on Monday said they had arrested three "extremely dangerous" suspected mafia members wanted in Italy for crimes including attempted murder, weapons trafficking and money laundering.
peine forte et dure: strong and harsh punishment torture, in particular to force a defendant to enter a plea. per my et per tout: by half and by the whole describes a joint tenancy: by the half for purposes of survivorship, by the whole for purposes of alienation. petit jury "small jury" a trial jury, now usually just referred to as a jury ...
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