Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book IV: On Public Wrongs by Sir William Blackstone

Author:Sir William Blackstone [Blackstone, Sir William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Politikwissenschaft
Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
Published: 2017-07-26T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XXXII.: OF EXECUTION.

There now remains nothing to speak of but execution; the completion of human punishment. And this, in all cases, as well capital as otherwise, must be performed by the legal officer, the sheriff or his deputy; whose warrant for so doing was antiently by precept under the hand and seal of the judge, as it is still practised in the court of the lord high steward upon the execution of a peer; Ref 3663 though in the court of the peers in parliament it is done by writ from the king. Ref 3664 Afterwards it was established Ref 3665 that in case of life the judge may command execution to be done without any writ. And now the usage is for the judge to sign the calendar, or list of all the prisoners’ names, with their separate judgments in the margin, which is left with the sheriff. As for a capital felony, it is written opposite to the prisoner’s name, “let him be hanged by the neck;” formerly, in the days of Latin and abbreviation, Ref 3666 “sus per col.” for “suspendatur per collum.”—And this is the only warrant that the sheriff has for so material an act as taking away the life of another. Ref 3667 It may certainly afford matter of speculation that in civil causes there should be such a variety of writs of execution to recover a trifling debt, issued in the king’s name and under the seal of the court, without which the sheriff cannot legally stir one step; and yet that the execution of a man, the most important and terrible task of any, should depend upon a marginal note. Ref 3668

The sheriff, upon receipt of his warrant, is to do execution within a convenient time; which in the country is also left at large. In London, indeed, a more solemn and becoming exactness is used, both as to the warrant of execution and the time of executing thereof: for the recorder, after reporting to the king in person the case of the several prisoners, and receiving his royal pleasure that the law must take its course, issues his warrant to the sheriffs, directing them to do execution on the day and at the place assigned. Ref 3669 Ref 3670 And in the court of king’s bench, if the prisoner be tried at the bar, or brought there by habeas corpus, a rule is made for his execution, either specifying the time and place, Ref 3671 or leaving it to the discretion of the sheriff. Ref 3672 And throughout the kingdom, by statute 25 Geo. II. c. 37, it is enacted that, in case of murder, the judge shall in his sentence direct execution to be performed on the next day but one after sentence passed. Ref 3673 But, otherwise, the time and place of execution are by law no part of the judgment. Ref 3674 Ref 3675 It has been well observed Ref 3676 that it is of great importance

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