Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 3, 2025
For the second period we have record of probably a larger percentage of all the cases. For the whole time from 1563, when the new law went into effect, down to 1603, we have records of nearly fifty executions. Of these just about two-thirds occurred in the earlier period, while of the acquittals two-thirds belong to the later period.
Even in the rare cases of acquittals, the prisoner could not be released till he had paid his fees, and that Giles Headley should have been borne off from the scaffold itself in debt to him was an invasion of his privileges, which did not dispose him to be favourable to any one connected with that affair; and he liked to show his power and dignity even to an alderman.
Without a prosecutor, without an impartial director of the inquiry, they left it substantially to those persons to try one another for their common acts. Here I come upon the principle which I wish most strongly to mark to your Lordships: I mean collusive trials and collusive acquittals.
From the vast number of acquittals in the seventies and the sudden dropping off in the number of witch trials in the eighties we know that there must have been many other judges who were acquitting witches or quietly ignoring the charges against them.
Considering that this was an extraordinary tribunal, working under extreme tension, which tried persons against whom usually the evidence was pretty conclusive, its record for the first six months was not discreditable. Between April 6 and September 21, 1793, it rendered sixty-three sentences of death, thirteen of transportation, and thirty-eight acquittals.
The percentage of convictions to acquittals is as follows: Convictions Acquittals Convictions Acquittals Per Cent Per Cent 1887-1907......23........7..........77..........23
Word Of The Day
Others Looking