Crime Penalty Quotes
To put the fine in perspective 200 shillings was the penalty for poisoning someone whereas 15 shillings was the penalty for trespassing and trampling someone’s crops. Even slandering a woman’s chastity carried a very severe penalty. The Salic Law is one of the very few documentations of the Merovingian dynasty.
This objection to capital punishment is an economic one. The colonies needed labor badly. Petty argued that if a criminal were executed the society would lose 1 laborer whereas if he were made a slave, then 1 laborer will be gained. Note that his assumption, typical of the times, that a rich thief would pay a fine but a poor one be executed.
This early Pennsylvania law is surprising to many readers. Homosexuality under Mosaic law which most colonies followed was a capital crime. In the case of a Massachusetts rape law 3-years earlier, the judge was given discretion in imposing the death penalty for a traditional Biblical Capital Crime. However, in this Pennsylvania law, there was no provision for capital punishment for homosexual acts. Whipping was as far as they went.
In an article discussing changing population of Japan.
