Mute
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
A prisoner is said to stand mute when, being arraigned for trial or felony, he either makes no answer at all, or answers foreign to the purpose, or with such matter as is not allowable, and will not answer otherwise; or when, having pleaded not guilty, he refuses to put himself upon the country.
Brown.