Lethal lottery or coherent scheme: Pardons and rationality in late-18th century London.
Item
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Title
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Lethal lottery or coherent scheme: Pardons and rationality in late-18th century London.
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Identifier
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AAI9325127
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identifier
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9325127
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Creator
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Mackesy, Richard.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Antony E. Simpson
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Date
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1993
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, Criminology and Penology | Law | Sociology, General | History, European
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Abstract
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This work concerns the procedure whereby certain capitally convicted felons at London's Old Bailey Court during the 1782-1783 sessions were granted the royal prerogative of mercy and pardoned. The 166 capital cases with known dispositions (58 executions and 108 pardons) are examined in order to assess the rationality of the process and to comment on the degree of legal modernization and the state of the relationship between the law and society at the time. Issues of legitimacy, bureaucracy and discretion are included in order to facilitate this assessment.;The variables used in this study have been selected based upon a deductive reading of the scholarly literature on the subject, particularly the debate between Hay and Langbein on the political role of the 18th century English criminal law. The primary sources for these variables include trial reports, prison records, Home Office documents, official and personal correspondences and contemporary newspaper and magazine articles.;The analysis suggests that the decision to pardon was not a purely arbitrary and irrational one as described by Hay (1975). Rather, evidence is adduced to show that the prerogative was used to correct procedural abuses and injustices, discourage certain types of criminality and fit the punishment to both the offense and the offender. This was achieved by means of a developing criminal justice bureaucracy, concerned about the legitimacy of the pardoning process, which was able to substantially affect the wide discretionary power inherent in the royal prerogative of mercy.;Hypotheses are suggested which can be used to further study the execute/pardon decision-making process. Such examinations can be made of other courts, other years, particular categories of crimes, or to measure the effect of aggravating and mitigating factors on the exercise of the prerogative over longer periods. A developmental model is presented which characterizes legal modernization as a late-18th century phenomenon.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
