Crushing
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2008-06-30T08:30:32Z
Latimermartyrs
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correcting quotation
:''This article is about the method of execution. See [[crusher]] for a description of the manufacturing process and mechanisms for it.''
Death by '''crushing''' or '''pressing''' is a method of [[capital punishment|execution]] which has a long history during which the techniques used varied greatly from place to place. This form of execution is no longer sanctioned by any governing body.
[[Image:Le Toru Du MOnde.jpg|right|thumbnail|200px|[[Louis Rousselet]] described this Central Indian execution in "[[Le Tour du Monde]]" in 1868.]]
A common method of death throughout South and South-East [[Asia]] for over 4,000 years of recorded history, and perhaps before that, was [[crushing by elephant]]s. The [[Roman Empire|Romans]] and [[Carthage|Carthaginians]] also used this method on occasion.
Crushing is also reported from Pre-Columbian America, notably in the [[Aztec empire]].<ref name="summerson">Summerson, Henry (1983). "The Early Development of Peine Forte et Dure."</ref><ref name="Ives">''Law, Litigants, and the Legal Profession: Papers Presented to the Fourth British Legal History Conference at the University of Birmingham 10-13 July 1979'' ed E. W. Ives & A. H. Manchester, 116-125. Royal Historical Society Studies in History Series 36. London: Humanities Press.</ref>
==Crushing under common law==
'''''Peine forte et dure''''' ([[Law French]] for "hard and forceful punishment") was a method of [[torture]] formerly used in the [[common law]] legal system, where a [[defendant]] who refused to [[plea]]d ("stood mute") would be subjected to having heavier and heavier stones placed upon his or her chest until a plea was entered, or as the weight of the stones on the chest became too great for the condemned to breathe, fatal [[Asphyxia|suffocation]] would occur.
The common law courts originally took a very limited view of their own [[jurisdiction]]. They considered themselves to lack jurisdiction over a defendant until he had voluntarily submitted to it by entering a plea seeking judgment from the court. Obviously, a [[criminal justice]] system that punished only those who volunteered for punishment was unworkable; this was the means chosen to coerce them.
Many defendants charged with capital offences nonetheless refused to plead, since thereby they would escape forfeiture of property, and their heirs would still inherit their estate; but if the defendant pled guilty and was executed, their heirs would inherit nothing, their property [[escheat]]ing to the Crown. ''Peine forte et dure'' was abolished in the [[United Kingdom]] in 1772, although the last known actual use of the practice was in 1741.[http://www.fsu.edu/~crimdo/forfeiture.html] In 1772 refusing to plead was deemed to be equivalent to pleading guilty. This was changed in 1827 to being deemed a plea of not guilty. Today, in all common law jurisdictions, standing mute is treated by the courts as equivalent to a plea of Not Guilty.
The elaborate procedure was recorded by a fifteenth-century witness in an oft-quoted description: "he willlie upon his back, with his head covered and his feet, and one arm will be drawn to one quarter of the house with a cord, and the other arm to another quarter, and in the same manner it will be done with his legs; and let there be laid upon his body iron and stone, as much as he can bear, or more ..."[http://books.google.com/books?id=veURAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA219&dq=%22laid+in+some+low+dark+house%22#PPA218,M1]
[[Image:Giles_Corey.jpg|thumb|Giles Cory was pressed to death during the Salem Witch Trials in the 1690s.]]
The most famous case in the United Kingdom was that of [[Roman Catholic]] [[martyr]] [[Saint Margaret Clitherow]], who was pressed to death on [[March 25]], [[1586]], after refusing to plead to the charge of having harboured Catholic (then outlawed) [[priest]]s in her house (in order to avoid a trial in which her own children would be obliged to give evidence).
The only executee of ''peine forte et dure''{{Fact|date=January 2008}} in [[United States of America|American]] history was [[Giles Corey]], who was pressed to death on [[September 19]], [[1692]], during the [[Salem witch trials]], after he refused to enter a plea in the judicial proceeding. According to legend, his last words as he was being crushed were "More weight", and he was thought to be dead as the weight was applied. This is referred to in Arthur Miller's political drama ''[[The Crucible]]'', where Giles Corey is pressed to death after refusing to plead "aye or nay" to the charge of witchcraft. In the film version of this play, the screenplay also written by Arthur Miller, Corey is crushed to death for refusing to reveal the name of a source of information.
The song "Giles" by the Boston metalcore band [[Unearth]] was inspired by the tale of Giles Corey's execution, and the lyrics tell the story of his last moments in court as well as his last thoughts as he is under the stones slowly dying.
==External links==
*[http://www.fsu.edu/~crimdo/forfeiture.html Forfeiture in England and Colonial America]
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Injuries]]
[[Category:Common law]]
[[Category:Execution methods]]
[[Category:Torture]]
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[[fr:Peine forte et dure]]
[[no:Pressing (straff)]]
[[pl:Zmiażdżenie]]
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