Under the common law, a defendant who failed to enter a plea was subjected to peine fort et dure — pressing under heavy weights — until he or she either consented to plead or died by suffocation. In the U.S., … Continue reading
Yearly Archives: 2012
Circuit courts were first established under the reign of King Henry II of England in the mid-12th century, meant to supplement the royal courts in London by having judges travel the countryside (“riding circuit”) to hear cases. In the U.S., … Continue reading
The Alford plea is a form of alternative plea in which a defendant enters a plea of guilty but still asserts his or her innocence. The defendant entering an Alford plea acknowledges that sufficient evidence exists for the prosecution to … Continue reading
Eight states still have laws against adultery on the books, ranging from a $10 fine in Maryland to life in prison in Michigan. Massachusetts is one of those states; under MGL c. 272 s.14, adultery is punishable by imprisonment in … Continue reading
Until 1828 in the U.K., a wife killing her husband committed petty treason, not murder. The penalty was generally burning at the stake. … Continue reading
Related to my last blog entry on barratry and my ongoing fascination with obsolete and esoteric legal concepts, my current discussion topics are the concepts of champerty, maintenance, and the alluringly-titled concept of embracery. Barratry, as you may remember, has to do … Continue reading
As part of my upcoming series of blog entries devoted to legal concepts that are esoteric or have fallen into dissuse, my present topic is “barratry”, a common law term that is probably known to few but involves a concept … Continue reading
Last week I had the pleasure of being invited to participate in a ‘talk back’ session following a performance of Radium Girls with cast members and several trial lawyers who handle worker’s compensation cases. Put on at the Regent Theatre in Arlington … Continue reading
Some of my readers will remember that some time ago I wrote about the law and custom regarding broken engagements, including blog entries on the issue of the return of engagement rings, and ‘breach of promise to marry’ lawsuits. In an interesting twist, a … Continue reading
Hello, gentle readers! My next blog post will be up in a week or two, but I wanted to mention my latest work. It is a bit surreal to me to mention it, really, since I completed this as a … Continue reading
From the introduction to the issue: “Our final article, by Ian Pilarczyk, examines the phenomemon of infanticide and the legal responses to [it] in Montreal from 1825 to 1850, a period marked by significant economic, social, political, and legal flux. … Continue reading
“Infanticide as heinous a crime as there is, even in 1840“, by John Kalbfleisch … Continue reading