UNIT 33

► Ex. I. Scan through the text Work in pairs to question the text and to give answers.

Capital punishment and its application. Death was formerly the penalty for all felonies in English law. In practice the death penalty was never applied as widely as the law provided. Many offenders who committed capital crimes were allowed what was known as benefit of clergy. The origin of benefit of clergy was that offenders who were ordained priests were subject to trial by the church courts rather than the secular courts. If the offender convicted of a felony could show that he had been ordained, he was allowed to go free, subject to the possibility of being punished by the ecclesiastical courts. In medieval times the only proof of ordination was literacy and it became the custom by the 17th century to allow anyone convicted of a felony to escape the death sentence by giving proof of literacy. All that was required was the ability to read or recite one particular verse from Psalm 51 of the Bible, known as the "neck verse" for its ability to save one's neck; most offenders learned the words by heart. The application of the death penalty was extremely erratic, as in any capital case the judge was entitled to reprieve the offender so that he could petition for mercy; but the judge was not obliged to do this, and if he decided to "leave the offender for execution," the death sentence was normally carried out immediately, without appeal. In practice, many offenders who were convicted of capital crimes escaped the gallows as a result of reprieves and royal pardons. Until the mid-19th century executions in England were public, and throughout the 18th century great crowds attended the regular executions in London and other cities. Often an execution was followed by scenes of violence and disorder in the crowd, and it was commonly believed that pickpockets were busy among the spectators at executions. Public opinion eventually turned against the idea of executions as spectacles, and after 1868 executions were carried out in private in prisons. Parliament (in 1957) restricted the death penalty to certain types of murder, known as "capital murders"— murder in the course of theft, murder of a police or prison officer in the execution of his duty, murder by shooting or causing an explosion, and murder on a second occasion. All other murders were to be punished by a life sentence (life imprisonment).