Don’t ask me why I was perusing the Georgia Annotated code. I guess it was boredom.
But, I came across this section where it is written:
What was the “benefit of clergy”, and why is it considered ‘ancient’?
Tripler
Trust me, if I commit a crime, I’ll prolly need a preacher.
Benefit of Clergy
Originally, it excepted members of the clergy from secular law and allowed them to be tried under ecclesiastical law (church law) instead. Eventually it was modified into just a convention of granting more lenient sentences to clergy.
Not quite. It was extended to cover all those who could prove they were a ‘cleric’ by reciting what was popularly termed the Neck Verse, ie the 51st Psalm. Anyone who could read or recite this in court was granted benefit of clergy. The playwright Ben Jonson famously escaped the gallows for murder by reciting the neck verse.
Thus Benefit of Clergy expanded from covering genuine members of the clergy (initially the only ones who were literate) to anyone who could read until it was finally abolished in 1827 (although it had been progressively weakened before that time).
When a Boston jury convicted a number of British soldiers of murder, they escaped punishment by this then-ancient and obscure protection. How? I have no idea. Popular histories go into no more detail than that.
You’re thinking of the Boston Massacre. Two of the eight soldiers were found guilty of murder, but their lawyer, John Adams, had them read the Neck Verse in court thus reducing the charges to manslaughter. They were branded on the thumb and released. Does benefit of clergy actually still exist in any state?
OK, so what is the Neck Verse?
The 51st Psalm:
(O God, have mercy upon me, according to thine heartfelt mercifulness.
Great thread. That Kipling story’s title finally makes sense.