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The form of a death sentence has a strong hold on the public imagination, and it is usually given a particular legal solemnity, partly to distinguish the considered judicial sentence from any routine or arbitrary act. The ensuing process to execution has also attracted customs which often attain virtually the force of law, ranging from the last cigarette before a firing squad, to the condemned man's hearty breakfast.
The forms of sentence and indeed execution have varied widely between jurisdictions and over time, and a wide range of other examples may be added to this obsolete British ceremony.
Upon conviction for a capital offence, the Judge usually had no discretion as to pronouncing sentence, whatever his wishes or intentions as to commutation or appeal. Nevertheless the question "Have you anything to say why sentence should not be passed according to the law?", theoretically intended for a plea in bar of jurisdiction, gave the convict a final opportunity of making a speech in person, which he often devoted to a plea in mitigation, or for mercy. An usher would proclaim, "Oyez! Oyez! My Lords the King's Justices do straitly charge and command all persons to keep silence while sentence of death is passed upon the prisoner at the bar, upon pain of imprisonment. God save the King!" The judge's chaplain would place the Black Cap, a square black cloth, on the judge's wig, and the judge, addressing the convict, would sum up the salient features of the crime and trial for the benefit of the public, before concluding: "The sentence of this Court is that you be taken hence to the place whence you came, and thence to a place of execution, and that you be there hanged by the neck until you are dead. And that your body be buried within the precincts of the prison in which you shall have been confined. May the Lord have mercy on your soul."
See also
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