The other day I just happened to ride by the Richmond Judicial Center in downtown Rockingham. As I waited at the light court must have just been let out. Folks hurried out the double door, some couldn’t wait to puff on a smoke, while others sprang out into the streets. I couldn’t help but think that our court system is a good thing but sometimes it can be a waste of time, troublesome, and of course expensive.
Over the years I’m sure the courts have seen some very strange cases. I reckon Ol” Moses was one of the first judges till it got so busy he had to appoint others to take the load off him
In medieval times and early modern Europe the practice of putting animals on trial reflected a world view where animals were considered moral agents capable of understanding and committing crimes. Like a person they were appointed lawyers and could be found not guilty or convicted and punished or even executed.
In one particular case a sow and her piglets were the defendants and were charged with murder for killing and mangling a young boy. It seems in that time livestock were turned out to fend for themselves until the owners decided to butcher them. The boy had gotten too close to the piglets. The sow attacked the child while the piglets joined in and killed the child.
In today’s world what do you think would be the correct judgement in this case? In this case the pigs were rounded up and put on trial to somewhat appease the boy’s family.
Like I said before, the pigs were appointed a defense lawyer. Why, they even cleaned the piglets up and put a dress on the old sow. As the court began, the old sow was propped in a chair while her piglets were placed all around her.
It took all day and part of the night to try this case but as the verdict came in the old sow was found to be the main perpetrator and was sentenced to hang. The piglets were found to be accomplices but due to their ages to be returned to their owner under the order that if they got into any more trouble, they would be roasted on the stake.
The next few days, a scaffold was built, and the old sow was hung by her back legs and left to die. Somehow this judgement and punishment satisfied the boy’s family.
In France during the sixteenth century a distinguished French jurist, Bartholomew Chassence which had been appointed by the court, made himself a good reputation by defending a bunch of rats. Yes, I said rats. It seems the rats were charged with eating most of the barley in surrounding fields. Chassence successfully argued for adjournment based
on the rats’ inability to be summoned due to their dispersed nature and fear of cats. The defendant won the case by default because the prosecution failed to provide a safe passage for the rats to get to the courtroom.
In Salem, Massachusetts, during the years 1692 – 1693, the courts tried over two hundred people for witchcraft. These so-called courts resulted in the execution of nineteen people and other deaths in jails. The state later recognized the harm they had caused and began some form of atonement, but would you believe not one of the prosecutors or accusers were ever held accountable.
It was in the early nineteen hundreds in Kingsport Tenn. that a five-ton Asian elephant named Mary was performing in the Sparks World Famous Circus. She was assigned a new handler, and he must have made her mad. While in the ring she threw him off with her trunk, stomped him in the dirt with all her weight and then used her trunk again to throw the lifeless body into the crowd. From then on she was known as “Murderous Mary”. A trial was held in the days after the murder of the trainer and Mary was sentenced to hang. Legend has it that a large crane was used to carry out the sentence.
You might ask, in modern times, can an animal be tried in a court of law? That answer seems to be “NO.” Now, animals are generally considered property and lack the legal capacity or understanding to be criminally responsible.
So, to close this column out it doesn’t matter if an animal or a human ends up in court you best be on the right side of the law.