Today in Salem: The stubborn Giles Corey is standing stone-cold mute in front of the judges, clenching his jaw and refusing to speak. He is 81 years old and still strong enough to work his farm, a commanding presence even though he is looking up at the judges.
“How do you plead?” the judges ask. But Giles is defiantly quiet.
It’s a dire choice. The trial cannot begin unless he enters a plea. If he continues to stand mute, the court can use “peine forte et dure” (strong and harsh punishment) until he pleads or dies a painful death.
Today is Giles’ third chance. He’s been in court twice, and both times stood mute. Even after the judges had reminded him of the consequences, even after his good friend has spent two days trying to persuade him, he will not speak.
The judges have already given him more than he deserves, and now they sentence him to pressing. In two days the sheriff will lay heavy stones on him, adding more and more, until he chooses to speak or dies.
Learn More: Why were prisoners punished — even tortured — for not entering a plea? Why couldn’t a trial start without one?
English law said that a court couldn’t hear a case until the accused person voluntarily asked for its jurisdiction. That request was made by entering a plea.
If an accused person refused to plead, they were refusing to ask for the court’s jurisdiction. The trial couldn’t begin because the court hadn’t been invited to judge it.
If that happened, the court could use a form of torture called “peine forte et dure” (French for “punishment strong and hard”) to force the accused person to enter a plea, and thereby ask for and accept the court’s jurisdiction. In England (and therefore British America), that torture usually consisted of extreme imprisonment (often with starvation), or being pressed with heavy weights.
“Peine forte et dure” was abolished in England 80 years after the Salem Witchcraft Trials. It was replaced by the mandate that “standing mute” was the same as saying “not guilty,” which was voluntarily asking the court to hear the case.
Less than 20 years later, the American Bill of Rights was created and added to the Constitution. Giles Corey’s death was foundational to its prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment.”