Historical Methods of Adjudication The methods used in ancient times to prove the truth of accusations brought against a person were, for the most part, cruel and brutal. Medieval Primitive trials were, by modern legal standards, unreliable, ineffective, and most of all unjust. These trials did not consider Adjudication evidence as we know it today. Evidence: “That which demonstrates, makes clear or ascertains the truth of the very fact or point at issue, either on one side or the other." Evidence can include testimony, documents, records, objects, etc., that can be legally presented at a trial for the purpose of inducing a belief in the minds of the court. During the medieval era (5 thth to 15 thth century) guilt or innocence Trial by Combat was determined by what was accepted to be divine intervention. Frequently, the accused was subjected to physical ordeals on Trial by Combat: physical combat between accuser the supposition that God would protect the innocent and punish and accused. the guilty. If the accused was elderly or infirm, they could In reality, the man who possessed exceptional strength and choose a champion to fight for them. fighting skills would triumph; or the man who could obtain a sufficient number of friends to substantiate his oath of Usually restricted to members of the nobility or of the innocence won his case. military class. The loser was judged guilty of a) the offense or b) of not speaking the truth. Devices most often used to arrive at the truth included: •• combat •• ordeals by fire and water, •• trial by compurgation •• inquisition (torture) Inquisition Trial by Ordeal Trial by fire: The accused was either forced to walk The accused was asked to confess under on hot coals or grasp redred--hothot pieces of iron. If hhee threat of physical torture. If they were accomplished this feat, and if his injuries appear to innocent, God would give them the strength to endure the torture until they heal, he was declared innocent. If injuries become succumbed to a good Christian death. infected, he was declared guilty. Pope Innocent IV (1243(1243--54)54) was the first Trial by water: Often used against woman accused of pope to sanction the use of torture in the practicing witchcraft. The accused would be thrown extraction of confessions of heresy during into a body of water. If she sank was declared the Inquisition. innocent (although she often drowned). If she floated, she was declared guilty and executed. During heresy and witchcraft trials, victims often were submitted to the most Why? Water was seen as inherently pure, good ––thethe diabolical tortures the Christian mind source of life. If a person sunk, then it was accepting could conceive. the righteous. If the person floated, then it was Court of Inquisition, chaired by rejecting evil. St. Dominic 1 Inquisitional Chair Museum of This instrument was used in Germany up to Medieval the 1800s, in Italy and in Spain up to the end of the 1700s, in France, in Great Britain and in the other central European countries, according to certain sources, up until the end of 1800s. The victim is made to site on the chair with the straps tightening to drive the spikes into his or her flesh. Weights could also Torture be used as well as blows with mallets to further the damage. While quite painful, the chair itself was not always immediately fatal. However, infection and tetanus claimed many victims days or weeks after their ordeal. Iron Maiden The name of this instrument seems to have originated from a Jibblet prototype that was built in the town of Nuremberg. It is also said that this sort of sarcophagus had the face of a maiden carved on its front door, probably with the aim of making this horrible container look more refined. This instrument has four main features, whose Another way of ending the wickedness, I think, deserve to be analyzed. The inside of the sarcophagus was fitted with spikes lives of the condemned was designed to pierce different parts of the body, but miss the vital organs, so that the victim to put them in cages and was kept alive, in an upright position. Its second feature is that the victims were kept hang them in public places in an extremely confined space to increase their suffering. where passersby could Its third feature was that the device could be opened and closed without letting the victim, observe the slow death of who had been pierced from the front and the back, get away. the victim. Its fourth feature was that the container was so thick that no shrieks and moaning could be heard from outside unless the doors were opened. When the sarcophagus doors were shut again, the The image on the right is of spikes pierced exactly the same parts of the body as before, and thus no relief was ever a two legged cage that still possible. This instrument can be defined both a torture and a death instrument. houses its last occupant, at St. Anselm Castle, in Hungary. Thumb / Toe Screws The Pear They are forced into an orifice of the victim and there expanded by force of the screw to the maximum aperture of their segments. The inside of the cavity in question is irremediably mutilated, nearly always fatally so. The pointed prongs at the end of the segments serve better to rip into the throat, the intestines or the cervix." (This instrument is Venetian, late 1500's, and consists of bronze segments and key, iron screw. Notice the etched face of Satan in the picture on the left.) 33 2 The Rack Pressing, or Tied to the rack and stretched gradually (or quickly) for days, elongation of The Press crushing under bodies was reported by various sources to cases of twelve inches, a result of boards with weights systematic dislocation of every joint in the body. With the prisoner tied to this horrific device, the inquisitor would then employ a variety of more subtle on them (also called tortures. the 'turtle'), was another way of dispatching condemned prisoners. In this English woodcut from the late 1500's, we see the added feature of a wooden wedge or 'scale' placed under the victim's back. Garroting Chair Catherine’s Wheel Italian, 1500's. On the left, a close up of the restraint for the victim's neck. On the right, the death of the condemned as the point is slowly driven into the back of the neck. Branks Judas Cradle Note: In modern times this method still enjoys the favour of more than a few governments in Latin America and elsewhere, with and without improvements like electrified waist rings and pyramid points. 3 Cat’s Paw Head Crusher About as large as four fingers of a man’s hand, these devices, Headcrushers exerted tremendous force on the head by means usually attached to a short handle, served to rip the victim’s of a screw. This could be used to force a confession or as a flesh to shreds and to strip it off the bones, in any part. means of execution. Some headcrushers had a sharp popointint at the tip of the screw which would drive into the skull, anchoring it for the pressure of the skull plate. The Heretic’s Fork Waterboarding In the Spanish Inquisition (1478- 1834, with its most active period from 1480-1530), a form of torture similar to waterboarding called toca was used (though infrequently) during the trial portion of the Spanish Inquisition process. The toca , also called tortura del agua , consisted of introducing a cloth into the mouth of the victim, and forcing them to ingest water spilled from a jar so that they had the With the four sharp points rammed deep into the flesh under the chin and into impression of drowning. the bone of the sternum, the fork prevented all movement of the head and allowed the victim only to murmur, in a barely audible voice, “abiuro” (“I recant”, engraved on one side of the fork). If instead he still refused, and if the Inquisition was the Spanish one, he was held to be an “impenitent heretic” and, dressed in the characteristic costume, was led to the stake, but with the consolation of the sacrament if extreme unction; if instead it was the Papal Inquisition, he was hanged or burnt, without the benefit of the pretty costume but still with that of proper Christian rites. Trial by Compurgation (Wager of Law) You are now leaving the The trial by compurgation called for the accused to exonerate him/herself by obtaining enough compurgators (friends and Museum of neighbors) to swear that they believed him/her. The theory being these people would not endanger their immortal souls by taking a false oath on behalf of someone they Medieval knew to be guilty. These primitive trials and methods did not involve any element of persuasion --peoplepeople did not concern themselves wwithith the reliability of the tests involved. The credibility ooff the witnesses Torture who swore that they believed the accused to be innocent was never challenged as the oath alone sufficed. (Thank you. Come again!) 4 The development of the jury system in the common law introduced the element of persuasion through the presentation of evidence to substantiate claims and allegations. In the interests of achieving true justice, it became apparent that for in a fair and impartial trial the jurors should be shielded from false, misleading or unsubstantiated testimony. Rules were then established by i) jurisprudence and ii) courts regarding how evidence could be presented and how guilt or innocence should be determined.