Significance
In 1637, American colonial law regarding murder followed English common law, the basis of which was essentially biblical. The Bible was clear that the punishment for murder was death. Massachusetts law followed Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, which offered no other alternative. Any person killing another in "anger or cruelty of passion" shall be put to death. Massachusetts's common law made no distinction between insanity and criminal behavior. The only punishment legally available for Dorothy Talbye was the death penalty.
In 1641, the Massachusetts Body of Liberties was written as a first step at developing a body of law for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It codified the following, giving some allowance for special situations, although it may not have helped Dorothy Talbye: "Children, Idiots, Distracted persons, and all that are strangers, or new comers to our plantation, shall have such allowances and dispensations in any cause whether Criminal or other as religion and reason require."
Read more about this topic: Dorothy Talbye Trial
Famous quotes containing the word significance:
“Of what significance the light of day, if it is not the reflection of an inward dawn?—to what purpose is the veil of night withdrawn, if the morning reveals nothing to the soul? It is merely garish and glaring.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Politics is not an end, but a means. It is not a product, but a process. It is the art of government. Like other values it has its counterfeits. So much emphasis has been placed upon the false that the significance of the true has been obscured and politics has come to convey the meaning of crafty and cunning selfishness, instead of candid and sincere service.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)