PEINE FORTE ET DURE, pint V.rt ;') dnr ((tF., strong and hard punishment ). A punish ment formerly Unposed by the laws of England upon persons who, on being arraigned for felony (q.v.). refused to plead, stood mute or per challenged more than twenty jurors, which was considered a contumacy equivalent to standing mute. By the early English law, an accused person must plead 'guilty' or not guilty' before he could Is. tried, and the form of coercion hereinafter described was devised to force an ac ensed person to plead in case of obstinate refusal.
In the beginning of the thirteenth century the penalty consisted merely of a long imprisonment and a low diet, 'persisted in until the prison er submitted. However, by the reign of Henry IV. it had become the practice to lay the ac cused on his back on a bare door. place on his Innly as great a weight of iron "as be could bear, and more," and give him only the 'worst' bread and water from the nearest stagnant pool until he consented to plead or died. During the fif teenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and even the eighteenth centuries, 0 number of cases are re oorded of the indiction of the above punishment for 'standing mute' on an arraignment for fel ony.
This form of coercion of a plea was finally abolished in 1772, by the statute of 12 Cleo. III., chap. 20, whieh provided that 'standing on an arraignment for felony should be considered as equivalent to conviction. This harsh rule was altered by the statute of 728 (1co. IV., chap. 28, by the humane provision that a plea of 'not guilty' should, be entered in ease of the refusal of a prisoner to plead, and this rule prevails everywhere to-day.
American records are stained by only one well autlientieated instance of the indiction of this torture. One (tiles Cory, accused of being a. witch, refused to plead on his arraignment, and was pressed to death at Salem. .Mass., in 1092. Consult Stephens, Histw-y of The Criminal Law of England (London. 188)3).