OUTLAWRY. An ancient common-law pro cess for compelling the appearance of a person before a court of justice. Its origin dates back to the reign of King Alfred, and it was probably devised as the most efficient means of securing the punishment of a culprit. The courts and officers of the peace were not well organized at that time, and it was not difficult for a criminal to elude the King's officers. However, a decree of outlawry against an alleged criminal bound every honest person to attempt to capture him if he crossed his path. The outlaw was deprived of all rights as a citizen, or even as a human heing. He was considered as a wild beast, the decree at a later date bearing the words, Caput gerat lupin um (Let him bear the wolf's head), which signified that it was the right, and even the duty, of any person to knock him on the head as if he were a wolf. To harbor or render assistance to an outlaw was a capital crime, punishable with death. Outlawry was, there fore, equivalent to a sentence of death, and, in addition. the outlaw was deprived of all prop erty rights, his land escheated to the King, or under the feudal system to his lord, his chattels being always forfeited to the King. The law in this respect continued the same until the thirteenth century, when the reform of prohibit ing the public from wantonly killing an alleged outlaw, unless in an attempt to capture him, was introduced. Even at that time, if on the trial the mere fact of outlawry was established, the sentence was death. However, toward the end of the thirteenth century, the penalty of death was no longer inflicted in cases of 'minor outlawry.' that is. where the process had issued in a civil cause, or in a prosecution for a crime less than felony or treason. The decree of out- 1 lawry at that time was issued in so many cases where the accused person had not intentionally disobeyed a summons from a court. or had never been informed that he was accused, that it be came customary for the King, when such a case was brought to his attention, to `inlaw' the per son. This was effected by a decree removing the
ban of outlawry, and the accused could then appear and stand trial for the idryns, originally alleged to have been committed by him. How ever, the person who thus again received the protection of the law was considered a new person, as if he had just been born, anti was not thereby restored to his former property rights.
The outlaw's blood was said to he 'corrupt,' and a child born to him after the decree was incapable of inheriting, not only from the father, but from any one else. By the statute, 5 and Ed v. VI., c. 11, a person outlawed for treason while abroad was permitted to return to the country within a year and a day and stand trial, but no provision of this sort in regard to felony has ever been made. The 'Forfeitures Act,' 1870, 33 and 34 Viet., c. 23, reserved for feitures of lands and chattel(; to the Crown in cases of outlawry fur treason and felony. Out lawry for misdemeanors may still he imposed, but such a judgment amounts only to a convic tion for contempt of court, although it entails a forfeiture of chattels to the Crown. The sov ereign alone can pardon an outlaw. The process of outlawry has not been used in England since 1859, but the above statutes still remain in force.
The process of outlawry is entirely obsolete in the United and it is doubtful if it. has ever been employed since the War of the Revolution. The term outlaw has been loosely applied in some criminal statutes to designate bandits or wandering marauders, who habitually live by crime, hut it has not the signification it bears under the laws of England. Sel. ('RIME: FELONY. Consult Legge, The Law of Outlawry (London, 1779) ; Blackstone. Commentaries.