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:
“Confession is always weakness. The grave soul keeps its own secrets, and takes its own punishment in silence.”
—Dorothy Dix (1861–1951)
“All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice.”
—Joseph De Maistre (1753–1821)
“A material resurrection seems strange and even absurd except for purposes of punishment, and all punishment which is to revenge rather than correct must be morally wrong, and when the World is at an end, what moral or warning purpose can eternal tortures answer?”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)