Mute
Black's Law Dictionary · Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910
Black's Law Dictionary
Speechless; dumb; that cannot or will not speak. In English criminni law, a prisoner is said to stand mute when, being arraigned for treason 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, upon having pleaded not guilty, refuses to put himself upon the country.
4 BL Comin. 324.