Representative Peers

See Peers. REPRIEVE (from Fr. reprendre, to take back). The withdrawing of a sentence for an interval of time, which operates in delay of execution.

4 Bla. Com. 394.

It is granted by the favor of the pardoning power, or by the court who tried the prisoner. Reprieves are sometimes granted ex necessitate legis; for example, when a woman is convicted of a capital offence, after judgment she may allege pregnancy in delay of execution. In order, however, to render this plea available, she must be quick with child (q. v.), the law presuming — perhaps wrongly enough — that before that period life does not commence in the foetus.

Co. 3d Inst. 17; 1 Hale, Pl. Cr. 368; 2 id.

413; and there is also a reprieve when the prisoner becomes insane; 4 Hargr. St. Tr. 205, 206; Co. 3d Inst. 4. The president, under the constitution, Art. II. § 2, has the power to grant reprieves. A reprieve is said to be a withdrawal or withholding of punishment for a time after conviction and sentence, in the nature of a stay of execution.

Cooley, Const., 2d ed. 104. See Bish. Cr. Proc. 1290.

When a reprieve is granted in a capital case to a day certain, the warden should execute the sentence on the day the reprieve expires, and the time of execution need not be again fixed by the court; In re Buchanan, 146 N. Y. 264, 40 N. E. 883.

See Sterling v. Drake, 29 Ohio St. 457, 23 Am. Rep. 762; Pardon; Execution.