Punishment
The court was expressly limited to two forms of punishment. These were death, in capital cases, or flogging, in non-capital cases. Fines or imprisonment were not an option as there were no local gaols nor would prisoners have the money to pay a fine in the early days of the settlement. However, Phillip frequently sent prisoners for punishment to the islands in Sydney Harbour, and then subsequently to Norfolk Island when that penal colony was established. The Governor's warrant was a necessary preliminary to an execution; but he was empowered by his commission to grant a pardon in any case which was not treason or murder. He could also reprieve a prisoner until final instructions were received from England.
Read more about this topic: Court Of Criminal Jurisdiction
Famous quotes containing the word punishment:
“Garth, marriage is punishment for shoplifting, in some countries.”
—Mike Myers (b. 1964)
“The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt.”
—John Philpot Curran (1750–1817)
“No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary, whatever the punishment, once a specific crime has appeared for the first time, its reappearance is more likely than its initial emergence could ever have been.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)