Bloody Code

The retrospective nickname for the body of eighteenth-century English statutes that made an increasing number of offenses — overwhelmingly property crimes — punishable by death, pushing the count of capital offenses from about fifty in 1688 to roughly 200-223 by the reform era of 1819-1828. The name describes the statutory wave itself, distinct from the older common-law grand-larceny line it was layered on top of — see entity-grand-larceny. Its severity was real on the statute books and routinely undercut in practice by jurors who undervalued stolen goods to dodge a mandatory hanging — see entity-pious-perjury.

References

• claim-englands-bloody-code-made-petty-property-theft-a-capital-crime
• claim-georgian-juries-undervalued-stolen-goods-to-avoid-the-death-penalty
• claim-12-pence-grand-larceny-threshold-is-common-law-not-a-bloody-code-statute