Criminal Justice Reform Act, 1746

[John Ivory 4546]

ACT OF THE IMPERIAL DIET

 

---

 

CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM ACT, 1746

12 Godfrey’s Triumph

Introduced in the Senate.

Passed through the Imperial Senate Session term of 1744-1746.

 

AYE

Basrid
Callahan

Corbish

May
Napier

 

NAY

Langford
Rutledge

ABSENT

Wright

 

An act to establish and reform due process and defining the rights of the denizens of the Holy Orenian Empire.

 

INTRODUCTION

This legislation shall establish and strengthen the definitions of due process, equal protection, and justice for all Imperial citizens. In order to effectively implement, protect, and defend the rights of all, this act shall set forth the provisions for legal action and the ways the administration of justice must be applied to safeguard all of the aforementioned.

 

SECTION I:

 

Defining cruel and unusual punishment 

 

1.  All cruel and unusual punishment shall henceforth be forbidden within the Holy Orenian Empire.
2. The term, cruel and unusual punishment, is defined by the use of torture and chronic afflictions of pain that are coerced by one party to another in retribution for a crime or conviction. 
3. Involuntary servitude, exceeding the lifespan of an individual shall be considered cruel and unusual punishment. 
4. Excessive physical punishment, uses of torture, sustained imprisonment without proper sustenance exercised unto individuals below the age of majority shall be branded as cruel and unusual punishment. 

 

SECTION II:

 

Establishing a jury of peers within the respective circuit courts

 

1.  A jury of peers shall constitute residents from within the Circuit Court region who shall sit at trials of Imperial Courts and observe the exercise of due process on the accused. 
2. A jury of peers shall be composed of three members residing in the place of origin of the accused.
3. In all cases of due process, the Circuit Courts and all other courts of law in the Holy Orenian Empire shall not hold criminal trials and exercise acts of justice without a jury of peers. 
4. A jury of peers shall have the power of consultation to advise and deliver a judgment rendered at the discretion of the presiding Imperial magistrate. The jury must have a two-thirds majority consensus on rendering its verdict to the court. 

 

SECTION III:

 

Maintaining the rights of suffrage, due process, and equal protection under the law

 

1.  All suffrage rights afforded to Imperial citizens as per the Edict of Elections of 1736 shall be maintained to all qualified by the aforementioned document and shall not be infringed upon due to any extraordinary circumstances except in cases of conviction by the Imperial Court of Law.
2. The right of due process as outlined by this act shall be maintained to all qualified by Imperial statutory law. Cases within the Imperial court must be adequately made known that provisions for the accused be given the right to face their accuser and that the accused be appointed legal counsel for their representation before the court. 
3. In the cases of treason, the Supreme Court shall reserve the jurisdiction of hearing trial and rendering judgment. 
4. Convictions and the accused shall have the right to make appeals on rulings made at the Circuit court to the Supreme Court. 
5. Equal protection under the law shall be maintained for all within the courts of law irregardless of status, occupation, and other extraordinary circumstances. 

 

Callahan Amendment

Uses of torture and enhanced interrogation may only be employed with an expressed written and signed writ from an Imperial magistrate in a court of law. The provision of this amendment and due process for the permission of torture by a court of law shall be waived for those deemed as enemy combatants of the Holy Orenian Empire.

 

Introduced by Senator Terrence May on 7 O.L. 1746

Co-sponsored by Senator Charles Napier

 

ISSUED AND PROCLAIMED,

HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY, Peter III Anthony, Holy Orenian Emperor, King of Curon, Renatus, Salvus, and Seventis, Protector of the Heartlanders, Highlanders, and Farfolk, etcetera.