The judge also said “This is always a traumatic and emotional decision for a judge. You’ve made it very easy today by your conduct.”
Damn.
The phrase is not set forth in any state or Federal guide to trial practice of which I’m aware - but it is somewhat traditional (and has been popularized by Hollywood over the years), so it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s still said here or there. It’s clearly within a judge’s discretion at capital sentencing.
One may ask–I, in fact, for one, will ask–about the “I now pronounce you …” at weddings. Even at civil events overseen by a judge in his law office.
Seems like the legal status of the words and the cultural nexus are similarly intertwined over a similar amount of time.
A tradition which started in British India, and still exists in all (AFAIK) successor states there is that when a judge signs off on a death sentence, the nib of the pen used to sign the order is broken by him or her.
Do you have something similar in the US, or like the black cap English judges used?
Got to say something. Tradition eases life by providing formula.
Would you rather have: “Yer now hitched: git along lil dogies.”
At a society wedding in St. Patrick’s NY ?
I’ve performed 5 weddings as a minister in the universal life church.
There are three required parts of a wedding; invocation, declaration of intent, and pronouncement.
The invocation is just introducing the couple. Declaration of intent is the “do you take you” part. The pronouncement is “I now declare you wed” part.
No, not that I’ve ever read about. As it happens, I saw a movie once in which a late 1700s English judge didn’t use a cap but had more of a small black square of cloth that he put on the top of his head.
I pretty sure that was the cap — just as a scull-cap is called a cap.
From some B/W film set on the Old Bailey.
( No matter how silly scull-caps look [ more so than most old caps which look silly to us ] they had a purpose made of steel under a Cavalier hat in 17th century warfare. )
What is the pronouncement in a Jewish wedding, “You are bound to me by the laws of Moses and Israel”, or the Rabbi’s saying blessings?
As far as flourishes at sentencing time go, I always thought it took extra flair for judges to say things like “Time will pass and seasons will come and go. Spring with its wavin’ green grass and heaps of sweet-smellin’ flowers on every hill and in every dale. Then sultry Summer, with her shimmerin’ heat-waves on the baked horizon. And Fall, with her yeller harvest moon and the hills growin’ brown and golden under a sinkin’ sun. And finally Winter, with its bitin’, whinin’ wind, and all the land will be mantled with snow. But you won’t be here to see any of 'em; not by a damn sight, because it’s the order of this court that you be took to the nearest tree and hanged by the neck til you’re dead, dead, dead, you olive-colored son of a billy goat.” (attributed to Roy Bean)
Or an even more elaborate such peroration in a recent novel by an author who clearly enjoys this sort of thing.
As I said, I believe that most judges are assholes.
Paging through several 19th-century novels courtesy of Google Books, I noticed a recurring trope: when the judge dons the black cap, it’s because he’s about to pass a sentence of death.
Indeed, I was thinking of you when I posted. 
Moderator Note
Professional jabs are against the rules of GQ. No warning issued, but don’t do this again.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Yes. This is the only circumstance in which a judge puts on a black cap.
In the Catholic rite of marriage, and in the rite of marriage used by most of the major western traditions, there is no “I now declare you wed” bit, or at best it’s an optional bit. The business end of the ceremony is the exchange of vows by the spouses.
Given how the common law dealing with marriage had been influenced by the Christian tradition, I’d bet with a fair degree of confidence that, at common law, it’s the exchange of vows in the presence of witnesses that’s legally effective to solemnise a marriage.
To the extent that marriage ceremonies have been prescribed by statute, you’d need to look at the statute for the jurisdiction concerned to see what the essential elements of the ceremony are. Note that in many jurisdictions there’s a prescribed ceremony for the civil celebration of marriage, but if the couple are married in a religious ceremony the statute merely requires that they be married “according to the rites and ceremonies” of the church concerned, or some such language. In which case “I now declare you wed” would be essential if, but only if, it’s regarded as essential by the religion or denomination in question.
I’ve never performed a marriage where religion played a part, so I can’t comment.
ETA: Immediately after my nephew’s wedding ceremony, one of the bride’s uncles approached me. He was still drying his eyes. He said, “Your congregation is blessed to have you”. I was speechless.
Yes, my understanding of the common law is that it’s the couple that does the marrying, by exchanging vows. The officiant doesn’t marry them; the officiant guides them through the ceremony by which they marry each other.
“I now declare you…” isn’t an action by the officiant that finalises the wedding, but declares that it has happened, in accordance with the laws of the jurisdiction.
Thus it was in the old days. A man and woman shacked up for the usual reasons. Not always with 'til death do us part — more like so long as we both agree. Maybe a little ceremony to please the Gods. And the Ancestors.
Then primitive religion took over, with the local priests wanting a cut: marriage was sanctified.
And then, with The Rise of the Nation State, 300 - 400 years ago government wanted to register births, deaths & marriages.
Government prolly won’t last, Marriage is purely a religious thing and the State adds nothing. The priest/registrar adds very little.