OCR Text |
Show Dire Punishment for Man "Mute of Malice" "Mute of malice" Is a legal term of considerable antiquity, and applies to prisoners who on being arrunged In court refuse to plead. In a recent Dublin cuse, counsel said lluil to seek a verdict of this kind nowadays was only an "ubsurd formality." But once It was not so. Then pen alty was terribly severe. Here Is an Instance as lute us 1710. A highway man, who pretended to he dumb and refused to plead at Kilkenny uxsl7.es, was tried as to whether he was "mute anil lunatic by the hand of God or wilfully wil-fully so." tin being found "mule of malice," he was sentenced lo be pressed to death, a decree which was carried out In Iho market place. "A the weights were heaping on the wretched muu" (says au account) "bit earnestly supplicated to bo hanged but It being beyond the power of the sheriff to deviate from the mode of punishment prescribed In the sentence, even this was an Indulgence which could be no longer granted to him." London Mall. |