Gaol Delivery
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary · Alexander M. Burrill · 1850
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary
[L. Fr. deliveraunce de gaole.'] In criminal law. The delivery or clearing of a gaol of the prisoners confined therein, by trying them; the gaol being considered as delivered by their acquittal or punishment. Ad gaolam deliberandam de illis qui inprisona — inveniuntur. Bract, fol.
110.
A commission of general gaol delivery is one of the four commissions under which the judges in England sit at the assizes; and it empowers them to try and deliver every prisoner who shall be in the gaol, (that is either in actual custody, or out on bail,) when the judges arrive at the circuit town. 4 Chitt. Bl. Com. 270, and notes.
4 Steph. Com. 333. 1 Chitt. Crim. Law, 146, 146.
The higjher criminal courts in England and the United States are called courts of Oyer and Terminer, and general gaol delivery. GAOL LIBERTIES (or LIMITS.) A certain extent of ground around or conti* guous to a gaol, and designated by certain lines or boundaries, within which the persons confined are allowed to go at large on giving security not to escape; being, in contemplation of law, a mere extension of the gaol itself, as a matter of indulgence to the prisoners.* 6 Johns. B.121.
2 Term B. 26.