Sentence
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
May mean almost any final determination by a judicial tribunal; but it was commonly used of those of criminal and ecclesiastical courts; while " judgment " is generally used of civil decisions at common law, and " decree " of decisions in equity. Sentence is sometimes found used with reference to admiralty courts; while the word decree is more common in that connection. Sentence of death recorded.
The Stat. 4 Geo. IV. ch.
48, allowed the recording of a sentence of death not actually pronounced, on the understanding that it would not be executed in capital felonies other than murder. The effect of such a record is the same as if the judgment had been pronounced and the offender reprieved by the court. The number of capital felonies has, however, been so much reduced by modern legislation that this is now seldom done.