What is the meaning of the black piece of cloth which judge placed over his head before he declares the sentence to death?
(Before the death penalty had been abolished, In Turkey, judges used to break their pens after signing sentence to death which means "God save us to sign such unfortunate decisions from now on".)
I think - simple as it sounds - it was an indicator, before the sentence was read, that the death sentence had been decided on and was about to be read out. I don't know if there's any historical reason - it may just be the death connotations we associate with black.
"If we go on like this, you're going to turn into an Alsatian again."
For crimes for which the death sentence was mandatory e.g. for the huge number of capital crimes prior to 1838 and for persons found guilty of murder up from 1861 to 1957, the prisoner would be asked if they had anything to say why sentence of death should not be pronounced upon them. A woman might "plead her belly," i.e. that she was pregnant and up to 1827, men could demand "benefit of clergy" which was a wonderful excuse cooked up by the church to ensure that clerics could not be executed for most offences. However, if neither of these excuses were available, the judge (or his chaplain) would place the "black cap" a nine inch square of black silk, on his head and proceed to pronounce sentence.
Up to 1948 the judge would say "(full name of prisoner) you will be taken hence to the prison in which you were last confined and from there to a place of execution where you will be hanged by the neck until you are dead and thereafter your body buried within the precincts of the prison and may the Lord have mercy upon your soul". Thereafter the judiciary decided that the sentence be modified by the substitution of the words "suffer death by hanging" for "be hanged by the neck until dead" and this sentence continued to be used for those convicted of capital murder up to 1956. The wording was further modified after 1957 to substitute “suffer death in the manner authorized by law” and the reference to burial was removed. Note that the sentence did not change with the ending of public execution or the introduction of the long drop. The mention of burial within the precincts of the prison was introduced by the Criminal Law Consolidation Act of 1861. Prior to that the bodies of non murderers could be returned to their families for burial.
Dharma... it better be worth it in the end
The placing of the black cap on the judge's head was simply a tradition going back centuries, when the death sentence was pronounced. I do not know the precise date of its origin.
shareHence the expression "Be it on your head." -- meaning, you're taking responsibility for the deed (execution).
share"Suffer death by hanging" instead of "be hanged by the neck until dead", Why did they change it, I wonder? Probably to sanitized what actually happened.
shareI just Googled for "suffer death by hanging", and bizarrely the top result is a news story from the Guyana Chronicle headlined BURT LANCASTER TO SUFFER DEATH BY HANGING.
"LATE yesterday, a Demerara Assize jury found Burt Lancaster guilty of the murder of taxi driver, Deonarine Sukhdeo on April 19, 2006. [PHOTO: Burt Lancaster called ‘Moses’ being escorted to court yesterday.] Justice Dawn Gregory sentenced him to death and ordered that he be hanged by the neck until he be dead."
Of course it's not *the* Burt Lancaster. Guyana is a former British colony and presumably based its legal verbiage on the British justice system, so if you want to see a good old-fashioned British hanging, Guyana's the place.
Perhaps they could have got rid of the whole "death" thing and just changed it to "you will have a comfortable rope placed lightly around your neck, at which point we'll ask you to hop off this stool here, won't take a minute".
Perhaps they could have got rid of the whole "death" thing and just changed it to "you will have a comfortable rope placed lightly around your neck, at which point we'll ask you to hop off this stool here, won't take a minute".
Thanx, `88state'; that was a very informative posting.
shareI always thought it was to hide the judge from God while ordered the breaking of a commandment - also there was a vicar stood there next to him wasn't there?
share