Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England

Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England

 
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
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Product details:

ISBN13:9781108712743
ISBN10:1108712746
Binding:Paperback
No. of pages:352 pages
Size:210x150x20 mm
Weight:500 g
Language:English
267
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Short description:

Explores the role of criminal intent in constituting felony in the first two centuries of the English criminal trial jury.

Long description:
This book explores the role of mens rea, broadly defined as a factor in jury assessments of guilt and innocence from the early thirteenth through the fourteenth century - the first two centuries of the English criminal trial jury. Drawing upon evidence from the plea rolls, but also relying heavily upon non-legal textual sources such as popular literature and guides for confessors, Elizabeth Papp Kamali argues that issues of mind were central to jurors' determinations of whether a particular defendant should be convicted, pardoned, or acquitted outright. Demonstrating that the word 'felony' itself connoted a guilty state of mind, she explores the interplay between social conceptions of guilt and innocence and jury behavior. Furthermore, she reveals a medieval understanding of felony that involved, in its paradigmatic form, three essential elements: an act that was reasoned, was willed in a way not constrained by necessity, and was evil or wicked in its essence.

'Probing the boundaries of popular conceptions of mens rea, Kamali draws on a remarkable array of non-legal sources, from homilies and theological treatises, to poems, ballads, and romance literature. In so doing, Kamali becomes one of the few legal historians to analyze the law with respect to the culture that produced it. The result is an engrossing study of medieval England's justices and jurors and the cultural pressures that influenced their verdicts.' Sara M. Butler, King George III Professor in British History, Ohio State University
Table of Contents:
List of figures; Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations; Introduction; The history of Mens Rea; Methodology; The trial jury and its predecessors: Anglo-Saxon and Angevin Antecedents; A brief chapter summary; The essentials of medieval English felony procedure; Part I. Felonia Felonice Facta: Felony and Intentionality: 1. The meaning of felony; 1.1 Felonia Felonice Facta and the question of non-felonious felonies; 1.2 The etymology of felony; 2. Felony in the archives; 2.1 Words of felony in law and literature; 2.2 Accomplice liability and the nexus between actus reus and mens rea; 2.3. A felonious state of mind; 2.4 Conclusion to Part I; Part II. &&&222;e Deuylys Doghtyr of Hell&&&235; Fyre: Felony and Emotion: 3. The language of anger; 3.1 An elite emotional episode: the Warenne-Zouche Incident; 3.2 The history of law and emotion; 3.3 The language of anger; 3.4 Anger and the common law: an overview; 3.5 Passion in the plea rolls; 3.6 Melancholic felony in Gower's Tale of Canace and Machaire; 4. Cultural understandings of anger; 4.1 Anger and the judgment day; 4.2 Positive manifestations of the passion; 4.3 Anger in the confessional; 4.4. Slights, affronts, and provocations; 4.5 Anger, provocation, and the medieval English jury; 4.6 Conclusion to Part II; Part III. Handlyng Synne: Guilt and Innocence: 5. Confession and circumstantial inquiry; 5.1 Confessions of a horse thief; 5.2 A confessing society; 5.3 Inquiry into the circumstances; 5.4 The role of confession in felony adjudication; 6. Guilt assessment in medieval England; 6.1 Handlyng Synne and crime; 6.2 Sins of thought, speech, deed; 6.3 Rankings of sins and crimes; 6.4 Conclusion to Part III; Part IV. Dies Ir': Judge and Jury: 7. Tales of judging; 7.1 The perils and prosaic nature of judging; 7.2 Pontius Pilate and deference to jury verdicts; 7.3 The misjudging of Christ and its resonance; 8. The mind and comportment of judge and jury; 8.1 Erkenwald and the Pagan judge; 8.2 Harsh justice tempered by mercy; 8.3 The proper comportment of those who judge; 8.4 Judicial states of mind; 8.5 Conclusion to Part IV; Conclusion; Looking back; Looking forward; Legal literacy and the medieval English jury; Bibliography; Index.