Trial
Tichborne was tried at the sessions house in the Old Bailey on 10 Oct. 1660, and pleaded not guilty, but admitted the fact for which he was indicted, only asserting his ignorance and repentance. "It was my unhappiness to be called to so sad a work when I had so few years over my head; a person neither bred up in the laws, nor in parliaments where laws are made. ... Had I known that then which I do now, I would have chosen a red hot oven to have gone into as soon as that meeting". He was found guilty of high treason, the considerable property he had acquired during the civil war and the confiscation of the crown lands that he had purchased were sequestrated, and he was sentenced to death.
The sentence of death was not carried out immediately because under terms of the act of Indemnity Tichborne was one of the nineteen regicides who, having surrendered themselves, were, if condemned, not to be executed save by a special act of parliament. It was also alleged in his favour that he had saved the lives of various royalists during the late government. A bill for the trial of Tichborne and his companions passed the House of Commons in January 1662, but was dropped in the Lords after Tichborne had been brought to the bar of the upper house and heard in his defence
Read more about this topic: Robert Tichborne
Famous quotes containing the word trial:
“Looks like we got a trial ahead of us. But it’s not the first time. We’ve had to go it alone before, and we’ll have to go it alone again. We’re tough. We’ve had to be tough ever since Brother Brigham led our people across the plain. Well, they survived and I dang it, we’ll, well, we’ll survive too. Now put out your fires and get to your wagons.”
—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)
“The trial by market everything must come to.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Going to trial with a lawyer who considers your whole life-style a Crime in Progress is not a happy prospect.”
—Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939)