Evasion

“ It would serve some of this class of reformers right, if one day, when after a life-time of evasion, they perchance came to be tried by a jury of their peers, they should find that among their twelve judges there was not one who could read or write the English language with accuracy and that all were ready to convict anybody because he lived in a brown-stone front. ”

“ A prisoner had the foolhardiness (for one can call it nothing else) to inform the officials of the intended evasion of three of the most desperate characters in the prison. Whether he did it out of revenge or to suit his own ends is not known; at any rate, his treason (for such it would undoubtedly be considered amongst his fellows) got somehow to be known, and his death decreed by the staroster. In the mean time, however, he had been removed to another cell, so it was arranged that it should take place at the Government photographer’s, when the gang went to be photo’d ”

“ The penance was enjoined sometimes for an indefinite period, and so long as he had to wear it, it would be difficult for the penitent to obtain employment. It is plain that evasion was frequently attempted. The Council of Béziers (1233) prescribed confiscation of goods for those who either refused to wear the crosses or tried to conceal them.423 The Council of Valence (1248) went further and decreed that evasion should be regarded as a sign of impenitent heresy. ”

“ The implication from the use of the phrase 'otherwise evades' is plain that the acts of omission or refusal to perform the prescribed duty and acts of ostensible performance by false statements and the like are equally recognized by the statute as modes of evasion of military service or of other requirements of the Act. ”

“ Such things ought to be taken from him, no less carefully than the instruments of destruction or evasion. Secrecy and mystery should be the attendants of punishment, and the sole persons present should be the injured, or two of his relatives, and a functionary delegated by each tribe, to witness and register the execution of justice. ”

“ Therefore you do well to have recourse to your last evasion, that it was contrived by your enemies, and shuffled into the papers that were seized; which yet you see the nation is not so easy to believe as your own jury ”

“ We conclude, for the reasons stated, that §§ 401 (j) and 349 (a) (10) are punitive and as such cannot constitutionally stand, lacking as they do the procedural safeguards which the Constitution commands. [43] We recognize that draft evasion, particularly in time of war, is a heinous offense, and should and can be properly punished. ”

“ It was obvious that the matter had to be settled, and evasions were distasteful to me. ”

“ Pillage of this nature is apt to encourage evasions of the law; for any one resident in the country to smuggle, or countenance smuggling though, is extremely foolish, and in the long run inevitably leads to mischief. ”

“ I am almost tempted to say that I hope it may be, for fear I may next have to see you in a felon's cell, or perhaps on the gallows, as I can only expect a dark and terrible fate for you. I have done all that lay in my power to make a decent man of you, and what are you? A hunted fugitive, disguised to evade an officer who seeks to arrest you for some crime, for such I understand now to be the mission of the man who has been here inquiring for you. ”

“ A person who has committed a murder, robbery, or other felony he has committed shall be imprisoned for his natural life and be burned on the hand, because those who have been exiled have disclosed their knowledge of the commodities and secrets of this nation and gathered together to practice archery for the benefit of the foreign realm. If he escapes such imprisonment, he shall forfeit his life. ”

“ When the victim floored, imprecations and oaths, and threats of vengeance, in case of resistance, immediately follow, accompanied by the most active search for the property, while they cover his mouth, kneel on his body, or beat him, as the case seems to them to require. ”

“ The jailer, however, was a man accustomed to deal with emergencies. "You need not laugh," he said, "every thing shall go on as before, and I shall take no notice of the absence of your companions. You are now numbered One to Seventeen inclusive, and you stand charged with highway robbery, forgery, treason, smuggling, barn-burning, bribery, poaching, usury, piracy, witchcraft, assault and battery, using false weights and measures, burglary, counterfeiting, robbing hen-roosts, conspiracy, and poisoning your grandmother by proxy. ”

“ All molestation of the claimant, in the removal of his slave, "by any process issued by any court, judge, magistrate, or other person whomsoever," to be prevented.
SECT. 7. Any person obstructing the arrest of a fugitive, or attempting his or her rescue, or aiding him or her to escape, or harboring and concealing a fugitive, knowing him to be such, shall be subject to a fine of not exceeding one thousand dollars, and to be imprisoned not exceeding six months, and shall also "forfeit and pay the sum of one thousand dollars for each fugitive so lost." ”

“ And so he thought the more of the men, the more of vengeance, the more of the hour which would see him face to face with them, and see them face to face with punishment. He rejoiced to think that abduction was one of the two hundred crimes which were punishable with death: and he swore that if he devoted his life to the capture of these wretches they should be taken. ”

“ In nearly every settlement suspicion led to combination for defense, combination to some form of oppression or insult, and so on by easy transition to arrest and concealment, attack and reprisal, expulsion, theft, house- burning, capture, and murder. ”

“ Statute, 'if any Constable, Headborough, &c. of the Hundred where any Robberies shall happen, shall refuse or neglect to make Hue and Cry after the Felons with the utmost Expedition, as soon as he shall receive Notice thereof, he shall for every such Refusal and Neglect forfeit 5l. half to the King and half to the Informer.'
Now Hue and Cry is of three different Kinds: 1. Against a Person certain by Name. 2. Against a Person certain by Description. 3. On a Robbery, Burglary, &c. where the Person is neither known, nor capable of being described. ”

“ If the fugitive being once in custody, should of his own accord evade his keeper and escape, or being excited by others to do so, should make the attempt, and an obstruction should be interposed to hinder the reception of the fugitive, the offence would be precisely the same as it would have been, had the same obstruction been interposed to the original seizure or arrest ”

“ If any one steal property to the amount of one direm, they take from the thief two direms, cut off the lobes of his ears, inflict on him ten blows of a stick, and dismiss him after one hour’s imprisonment. ”

“ Unfortunately for Peace, this was proved beyond all question. A detective was placed in the box, who said he knew the prisoner well, that he had undergone one month’s imprisonment in December, 1851.
Peace denied this in a most positive manner; nevertheless his assertions had but little effect upon the bench, who decided upon sending the case for trial.
“I’ve been punished quite enough, I should think,” ejaculated Peace, “considering I never intended to rob the house—​but—”
“If you take my advice,” said one of the stipendiary magistrates, “you will reserve your defence. ”

“ Any assistance given to him to hinder his being apprehended tried, or punished, is sufficient to convict the offender - as lending him a horse to escape his pursuers; but the assistance or support must be given in order to favor an illegal escape. ”

“ The rulers of old hired thugs to pursue and capture their enemies, had them slugged and cast into prison, framed up evidence and put them through farcical trials before fixed judges who condemned them to imprisonment or death as the order was given above. ”

“ I have constantly heard Englishmen of 'the good old school' say: 'If a man steals my horse, my dog, my poultry, I have him arrested, and he gets a few months' imprisonment; if he steals my wife, he remains at large, unmolested. ”

“ The thief that follows a thief finds little by the road. We are under no obligation to search a prisoner remanded from another prison.”
Impulsively I wrung the hand of the dear sententious; I looked into his eyes.
“The Goddess of Reason disown thee!” I said. “Thou shalt never be acolyte to a harlot!—And I—if all goes well, I will remember. ”

“ Such trials, such sufferings, and all so nobly borne! Then such escapes, such disguises, such subterfuges, and all so cleverly planned and carried out! Been in prison—got out of it, of course! Been thrown into a canal—swam ashore! Stole a horse—sold him for a large sum of money! ”

“ Thieves that are saved by their books and clergy, for the first offence, if they have stolen nothing else but oxen, sheep, money, or such like, which be no open robberies, as by the highway side, or assailing of any man’s house in the night, without putting him in fear of his life, or breaking up his walls or doors, are burned in the left hand, upon the brawn of the thumb, with a hot iron, so that, if they be apprehended again, that mark betrayeth them to have been arraigned of felony before, whereby they are sure at that time to have no mercy. ”

“ The arrest or confinement, or restoration of a fugitive, merely because he is such, falls not regularly within the objects of police regulations; for such a person may be obnoxious to no charge of violence or disorder ”

“ Every attempt to evade control or at concealment at locking up time will be punished. Violent attempts will be punished by the criminal court. Any [Pg 265] one who escapes from the establishment or from outside work will be punished with detention on his recapture and anyone taking his uniform when escaping will be prosecuted for theft.
(13) Whoever foments a conspiracy amongst the inmates will either be punished for breach of discipline or be handed over to the police. ”

“ More potent, even, than wine and brandy were the rattle of weapons and keys, the clash of locks and bolts, the cry of sentries, the stamping of feet at the door of the Tribunal, to intoxicate the prisoners and fill their minds with melancholy, insanity, or frenzy. ”

“ In that rough age crimes of violence predominated, and the king’s justiciars regularly perambulated the land in search of offenders, and decimated every village which refused to surrender fugitive criminals. ”

“ Thirdly, So far are Men from being animated with the Hopes of public Praise to apprehend a Felon, that they are even discouraged by the Fear of Shame. The Person of the Informer is in Fact more odious than that of the Felon himself; and the Thief-catcher is in Danger of worse Treatment from the Populace than the Thief. ”

“ Against escapes, and in particular on the part of felons of every description, as well before as after conviction, persons from the desperateness of whose situation attempts to escape are more particularly to be apprehended, it would afford, as I dare say you see already, a degree of security, which, perhaps, has been scarce hitherto reached by conception, much less by practice. Overpowering the guard requires an union of hands, and a concert among minds. ”

“ It not unfrequently happens that, for trivial omissions upon some useless observance of forms, the victim is incarcerated in a prison, and, after enduring all the horrors of these dens of thieves, expires in want, disease, and apparent infamy! ”

“ The prisoner then conveyed a quantity of ink into the cup, and after making a preliminary harangue directed every one to dip his finger within. This they all did except one whom he supposed to be the thief. He wet his finger in his mouth lest it should be discovered that he had not complied with the direction.
They now threw open the windows and found every man’s finger black but that of the delinquent. The prisoner perceiving this and observing the agitation which he manifested, exclaimed to him, ‘You are the thief;’ and finally compelled him to pay for the stolen articles. ”

“ Persons convicted, on impartial trial, of desertion to the enemy after becoming members, acting as spies, or of treacherous surrender of property, arms, ammunition, provisions, or supplies of [Pg 428] any kind, roads, bridges, persons or fortifications shall be put to death and their entire property confiscated. ”

“ I saw through your game at once. Your object was to get me ashore and rob me. You would have committed a State's prison offense; but I shall not say any thing about it unless you wag your tongue too freely about me. ”

“ The thieves knock at doors during church hours; if nobody answers, they know that nobody is in. Should any one answer the door, the thief asks for a glass of water, or would they be kind enough to tell him in what part of the street Mr. So-and-so lives? But we must not omit to say that houses are frequently watched for several Sundays together; and when the habits of the inmates are ascertained, the thieves take their measures accordingly. ”

“ Not only were such crimes more frequent than had formerly been the case, but they began to be marked by a degree of violence [224] which argued that a peculiarly desperate class of criminal was abroad; and such indeed was the actual state of affairs, occasioned by the temporary breakdown of the penal system and consequent upon the discontinuance of the practice of shipping the most dangerous criminals across the seas. ”

“ Suppose the hundred thousand men thereupon, very quietly, without any show of violence, should each proceed to steal something and then announce the intention to accept the consequence by pleading guilty. ”

“ Roughly speaking, a person lawfully engaged in arresting another for a felony or in preventing the escape of such an one lawfully arrested, may use all the force necessary for the purpose, even to taking the life of the prisoner. ”

“ In England and probably in Canada, to steal a horse is death, the first offence; to steal above the value of twelve pence is death, the second offence. All excess of punishment is a crime. To remit a fugitive to excessive punishment is to be accessary to the crime. ”