repealed by the Stat. 1 and 2 P. and M. c. 10. For as is observed by Sir Ed. Coke, "the execution of an offender is for example, ut pæna ad paucos, metus ad omnes perveniat: but so it is not when a madman is executed; but should be a miserable spectacle, both against law, and of extreme inhumanity and cruelty, and can be no example to others." 4 Bl. Com. p. 25.
Pregnancy is a good plea in bar of execution; but it does not prevent trial or sentence; in a recent instance, however, when a woman was brought to the bar evidently in labour, she was remanded by the court; and query, whether this discretion ought not to be exercised in all cases of advanced pregnancy; for the agitation of the trial may be of more fatal effect than the judgment of the law, and the unfortunate woman, though acquitted, may perish with her child from the mere effect of mental distraction.
When the plea of pregnancy is made to stay execution "the judge must direct a jury of twelve matrons or discreet women to inquire the fact: and if they bring in their verdict quick with child (for barely with child[1] unless it be alive in the womb, is not sufficient) execution shall be stayed generally till the next session: and so from session to session till either she is delivered, or proves by the course of nature not to have been with child at all. But if she once hath the benefit of this reprieve, and has been delivered, and afterwards become pregnant again, she shall not be entitled to the benefit of a further respite from that
- ↑ Here again the law of the land is at variance with what we conceive to be the law of Nature; and it is at variance with itself, for it is a strange anomaly that by the law of real property, an infant in ventre sa mere may take an estate from the moment of its conception, and yet be hanged four months afterwards for the crime of its mother.
