Peine
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
Punishment
Peine forte et dure. Severe and hard punishment. This was the name of what may be regarded as a punishment for refusing to plead to an indictment for felony, but more probably was a torture employed to coerce a plea. In early English times, conviction for felony involved, as the principal part of the punishment, the forfeiture of lands and goods; and, if attainder might follow, the consequences to the sons of the convict were even more serious. Hence, if a person accused of felony, and apprehending conviction, was owner of any considerable property, and had a family for whom he desired to preserve it, he had a powerful motive to avoid a trial; and this he could do by refusing to plead. -For, by the precedents of the common law, a plea by the accused was an indispensable preliminary to a trial. 'Sh.Q peine forte et dure doubtless originated as a means of compelling an offender to plead who refused to do so, probably from the desire to save his property to his family; though many writers represent it as a punishment for the offence of refusing to plead, considered as refractory conduct, or a species of contempt of court. According to the accounts given, the accused, on persisting in his refusal after admonition and a few hours' delay for reflection, was remanded to prison, and placed in a low, dark chamber, and there laid on his back, on the bare floor, naked, — unless where decency forbade. Upon his body was placed as great a weight of iron as he could bear. He received no sustenance, save three morsels of the worst bread, on the first day, and, on the second day, three draughts oi standing water that should be nearest to the If he answered, he was put on trial; and forfeiture of his estate followed, if a conviction was the result. But if he persevered until death relieved him from his -sufferings, his family were protected from the loss and disgi-ace which a conviction would have brought upon them. Blackstone conjectures that the practice of loading the prisoners with weights was gradually introduced between 31 Edw. III. and 8 Hen. IV., at which last period it first appears upon our books. This coercion of a plea was abolished in 1772, by Stat. 12 Geo. III. ch.
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