61 Although this number of cases is too small to yield firmconclusions, there are certain points of interest. The acquittal rate of approximately 27 % is somewhat lower than the figure of one third found in Langbein’s analysis of Dudley Ryder’s cases and in the more comprehensive work of Beattie for Surrey.The percentages of those convicted who were sentenced to death and who were actually executed (49 % and 54 %, respectively) are strikingly higher than was true in Ryder’s experience,and significantly above the overall results for Surrey.^® These facts support the characterization of Mansfield as, if not a hanging judge, at least an unsympathetic one. Further supporting this idea, and as a final illustration of Lord Mansfield’s work as a criminal law judge, is the severity with which cases of importance to the mercantile community were dealt. At the October 1761 sessions, John Perrot, a merchant, was tried for having concealed and removed his effects above £20 in value after becoming bankrupt.^' He was convicted, sentenced to death and executed. And in November 1766, an 18-year-old youth was executed after having been convicted of stealing a bank note and a bank post bill. The most oft-repeated type of action relating to commerce, however, was forgery. Lord Mansfield was involved in two notorious forgery trials — that of Dr. Dodd, and that of Mrs. Rudd. In both cases he supported the convictions.^^ Lord Campbell asserted that in all cases of forgery, Mansfield was “for carrying the capital sentence into execution”.Campbell was largely correct.^"* What coinage was to silver, forgery was to negotiable instruments. Coinage was classed as treason and regularly drew the death sentence. In Lord Mansfield’s appearances at the Old Bailey, he presided over 9 forgery trials; one defendant was acquitted, but 8 were convicted and sentenced to death. One of the trials (of John Ayliffe) was printed in full froma shorthand report. Lord MansRev. pp. 31—36. An example is JohnJones’ Case, Leach 57, where Mansfield is shown present with Justice Bathhurst at an October 1764 forgery trial at the Old Bailey being conducted by Baron Smythe. See Langbein, J., 50 Untv. of Chicago L. Rev. at 43; Beattie, J., Crime and the Courts in England 1660—1800, Table 8.8, p. 437. Beattie’s figure of For murder trials (there were comparatively few), the figure is higher. Only 20 of the 120 convicts tabulated by Langbein were sentenced to death, and only 9 of those were actually executed. 43 percent of the men convicted of capital offenses from 1660 to 1800 were executed, and 25 percent of the much smaller number of women. Beattie, supra. Table 8.9, p. 438. He was accused of concealing 13 bank notes representing hundreds of pounds. ** See generally Holliday, p. 149; Campbell, pp. 2:443^44; Langbein, “Shaping the EighteenthCentury Criminal Trial”, 50 Univ. of Chicago L. Rev. 1,94—96 (1983). II Campbell at 443. In addition to the cases in the Old Bailey Sessions Papers, Leach’s Reports demonstrate the preoccupation of the judges with the problem of forgery. In Leach, reporting cases in crown law determined by the 12 judges from 1731 to 1789, 34 of the 188 cases reported - almost one-fifth - are forgery cases. third pertains to all property offenses. one
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=