EXECUTION, in law, the carrying into effect of the final judgment, decree or order of the court. Execution is effected by a writ or order directed to the proper officer and com manding him to do a certain thing. In civil law it is the means of obtaining that which the court ordered to be done by one of the parties. Execution may be had for either plaintiff or defendant. When taken out by the plaintiff it depends on the cause of action as to what is to be recovered under the writ; generally it is for the debt and costs or for the goods, dam ages and costs. When taken out by the defend ant it may be for goods, damages and costs, and in some cases it may be only for costs.
As soon as final judgment has been entered, the party entitled to it may take out his writ of execution, and he is entitled to this writ until the other party has taken some step which is a supersedeas, such as an appeal or writ of error. The writ issues from the court which last passed on the judgment on which the writ of execution is taken out. Execution may be against personal property, taking and selling it, or it may be against real estate, either holding it until the judgment is paid or selling it, or in some cases by the seizure of the person of the defendant and holding him until the judgment is satisfied or until he is declared insolvent. If the property is sold the fund derived from the sale is applied to paying the judgment and costs, and the surplus, if any, is returned to the former owner of the goods. At common law, however, real property was not subject to ex ecution except for a debt due the State or the king. By statute of 5 George II, c. 5, real estate in the colonies became subject to sale under execution the same as personal property. A writ of execution, although issued at the instance of the party in whose favor the judg ment is, must be directed to the sheriff, who must carry out the direction of the writ. If he fails to do so he must answer in damages to the injured party.
Originally, at common law, when the execu tion was against personal property, such as goods and chattels, the writ of fieri facias was used, but to-day this writ may be used against land also. When the personal property consisted of choses in action it was reached by, a writ of attachment. If the execution was against real estate a writ of scire facias was used (now usually elegit or fieri facial), and it was sold under a writ of venditioni exponas. In some cases, when the judgment was confined to a particular piece of real estate, the writ of levari facias was issued first and it was sold under a writ of venditioni exponas. In modern usage, if the execution is against the person of the defendant a writ of capias ad satisfaci endum may be issued in some jurisdictions, under which the defendant is arrested and his person held until the judgment is satisfied or until the defendant is declared insolvent. Sometimes the defendant is released if security is given that the defendant will abide by the order of the court. Nearly all these writs and other old forms are obsolete or modified in use except fieri facias and, to a less extent, elegit and capias ad satisfaciendum. See AT TACHMENT; FIERI FACIA S ; SCIRE FACIA S.
A general judgment binds all property owned by the person against whom the judgment is recovered• at the time the judgment is entered, and it also attaches to all property he acquires up to the time the judgment is satisfied, and if the debtor sells any real estate before the judg ment is satisfied, the property is not released from the lien of the judgment. When property is sold under an execution the purchaser buys only the title of the debtor, and all equities under which he held it still attach to the property.
In criminal law execution is the carrying into effect of the judgment of the court.in rela tion to the person convicted. It consists in putting the convict to death according to his sentence. See CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.