Blood Law (also called blood revenge) is the practice in traditional American Indian customary law where responsibility for seeing that homicide is punished falls on the clan of the victim. The responsibility for revenge fell to a close family member (usually the closest male relative). In contrast to the Western notion of justice, blood law was based on harmony and balance. It was believed that the soul/ghost of the victim would be forced to wander the earth, not allowed to go to the afterlife, unless harmony was restored. The death of the killer (or member of the killer's clan) restored the balance.
Since this was the widely accepted custom, blood revenge prevented feuding. The families and clans of victims and perpetrators were at peace once the balance was restored. It was not uncommon for the clan of the killer to carry out the execution. There was motivation for this - if the offending party evaded retribution, any member of the offended clan could assess the penalty against any member of the offender's clan.
The blood law worked without any government, since it was enforced by clans on a local level. Neither was there any formal trial. However, there were customary ways of getting a hearing. E.g. Cherokees had four towns of refuge, where people were not allowed to seek revenge. Also, an avenger could not touch an accused on a priest's property. The priest could arbitrate or call for a Council to examine evidence and witnesses.
Blood revenge was a question of harmony, not necessarily of a vendetta. If a member from one clan killed the member of another, then balance must be restored. Blood revenge was considered very sacred and was carried out under the utmost sincerity. If a member of the clan a) should kill a member of the clan b), the clan b) would be owed one life, and the clan a) would pay with a life. Usually, the eldest brother or nearest male relative of a victim was expected to be the avenger of spilled blood. As far as the aggressor concerns, the entire clan was responsible for the crime of one of its members, and there were no exceptions. It was a system that worked well for the Cherokees, because relatives themselves would bring the fugitive to justice to avoid like punishment.
— Cherokee by Blood Society, Justice
The United States discouraged the Blood Law, but generally left to the tribes the enforcement of the prohibition unless the murdered victim was non-Indian. Also, the government sometimes stepped in when blood law threatened to lead to war between two different tribes.
Currently in the United States, only state and federal governments or military courts can impose the death penalty. Justice under Blood Law would be considered revenge killing or summary murder, and also could be an additional aggravating circumstance requiring the death penalty for the crime.
Read more about Blood Law: Misuse of "Blood Law"
Famous quotes containing the words blood and/or law:
“In the tale, in the telling, we are all one blood. Take the tale in your teeth, then, and bite till the blood runs, hoping it’s not poison; and we will all come to the end together, and even to the beginning: living, as we do, in the middle.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929)
“If one mistreats citizens of foreign countries, one infringes upon one’s duty toward one’s own subjects; for thus one exposes them to the law of retribution.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)