Civil law, as opposed to criminal law, is the branch of law dealing with disputes between individuals and/or organizations, in which compensation may be awarded to the victim. For instance, if a car crash victim claims damages against the driver for loss or injury sustained in an accident, this will be a civil law case. Civil law courts provide a forum for deciding disputes involving torts (such as accidents, negligence, and libel), contract disputes, the probate of wills, trusts, property disputes, administrative law, commercial law, and any other private matters that involve private parties or organizations including government departments. The objectives of civil law are different from other types of law. In civil law there is the attempt to right a wrong, honor an agreement, or settle a dispute. If there is a victim, they get compensation, and the person who is the cause of the wrong pays, this being a civilized form of, or legal alternative to, revenge.
Parchman is a small unincorporated town in Sunflower County, Mississippi, United States, in the Mississippi Delta region. Best known as the home of Mississippi State Penitentiary, formerly called Parchman Farm, Parchman is the oldest prison and the only maximum security prison in the state. Parchman also houses inmates who have been sentenced to death in Mississippi on death row. Instead of building a permanent execution chamber there, the state built the first portable electric chair in the United States, carried on a pickup truck and used until 1955, for executions at Parchman.