Corruption of blood is one of the consequences of attainder. The descendants of an attainted person could not inherit either from the attainted criminal (whose property had been forfeited on conviction) or from their other relatives through the criminal. For example, if a son is executed for a crime leaving innocent grandsons as orphans, and the innocent grandfather has other children besides the criminal, the property of the criminal is forfeited to the crown. But when the grandfather dies, the property of the grandfather will not be seized by the Crown or pass to the grandchildren: it passes to the other children of the grandfather.
While the United States Constitution (in article III, section 3) prohibits corruption of blood, it is nonetheless possible in many states for a crime to affect the inheritance rights of innocent relatives due to the slayer rule.
In England and Wales, where a judge considers it just, the Forfeiture Act 1982 applies in murder and in some forms of manslaughter, to simplify the common law rule. The rule applied to felony before the Forfeiture Act 1870.
Read more about this topic: Attainder
Famous quotes containing the words corruption of, corruption and/or blood:
“That the corruption of the best things produces the worst, is grown into a maxim, and is commonly proved, among other instances, by the pernicious effects of superstition and enthusiasm, the corruptions of true religion.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
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—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“I was born upon thy bank, river,
My blood flows in thy stream,
And thou meanderest forever
At the bottom of my dream.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)