Infamy in United Kingdom

Meaning of Infamy

The following is an old definition of Infamy [1]: The condition of being without repute, honor, or character: disqualification to testify as a witness or to sit as a juror, on account of conviction of a heinous offense. whence (the word(s) which follow it are derivatives from the same root word) infamous. ” No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger. . .” ”Infamous crime ” is descriptive of an offense that subjects a person to infamous punishment or prevents his being a witness. The fact that aa offense may be or must be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary does not necessarily make it, in law, infamous. The Fifth Amendment had in view the rule of the common law, governing the mode of prosecuting those accused of crime, by which an information by the attorney-general, without the intervention of a grand jury, was not allowed for a capital crime, nor for any felony; rather than the rule of evidence, by which those convicted of crimes of a certain character were disqualified to testify as witnesses. In other words, of the two kinds of infamy known to the law of England before the Declaration of Independence, the Constitutional Amendment looked to the one founded on the opinions, of the people respecting the mode of pimishment, rather than to that founded in the construction of law respecting the future credibility of the delinquent. The leading word ” capital ” describing the crime by its punishment only, the associated words, ” or other infamous crime ” must, by an elementary rule of construction, be held, to include any crime subject to infamous punishment, even if they should be held to include also cirimes infamous in their nature, independently of the pimishment- affixed to them. Having regard to the object and the terms of the Amendment, as well as to the history of its proposal and adoption, and to the early understanding and practice under it, no person can be held to answer, without presentment or indictment by a grand jury, for any crime for which an infamous punishment may be lawfully imposed by the court. The test is whether the crime is one for which the statutes authorize the court to award an infamous punishment, not whether the punishment ultimately awarded be an infamous one; when the accused is in danger of being subjected to an infamous punishmeht if convicted, he has the right to insist that he shall not be put upon his trial except on the accusation of a grand jury. What punishments shall be considered as infamous may be affected by the changes of public opinion from one age to another. For more than a century, imprisonment at hard labor in the State prison or penitentiary has been considered an infamous punishment, in England and America. Such imprisonment with or without hard labor is at present considered infamous punishment. The term ” infamous ” -without fame or good report – was applied at common law to certain crimes, upon conviction of which a person became incompetent to testify as a witness. This was upon the theory that a person would not commit a crime of such heinous character, unless so depraved as to be wholly insensible to the obligation of an oath, and, therefore, nnworthy of credit. These crimes are treason, felony, and the crimen falsi. As to what or whether all species of the last are infamous, there is disagreement among the authorities. . . A crime is not infamous, within the Fifth Amendment, unless it not only involves the charge of falsehood, butimay also Injuriously affect the public administration of justice by tlie introduction therein of falsehood and fraud. Under the Constitution and statutes there are no infamous crimes except those therein denounced as capital, or as felonies, or punished with disqualification as witnesses or jurors. If Congress makes a crime non-infamous, it can be pursued through information. . Stealing from the mails has not been made infamous. In early times the character of the crime was determined by the punishment inflicted, but in modem times the act itself, its nature, purpose, and effect, are loolced at in determining whether it is infamous or not. Passing counterfeit money is not an infamous crime. Infamous persons are such as maybe challenged as jurors propter delictum; and, therefore, they shall never be admitted to give evidence to inform that jury with whom they are too scandalous to associate. See Crimen, Falsi; Turpitude.

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Notes and References

1. Concept of Infamy provided by the Anderson Dictionary of Law (1889) (Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims and an Exposition of the Principles of Law: Comprising a Dictionary and Compendium of American and English Jurisprudence; William C. Anderson; T. H. Flood and Company, Law Publishers, Chicago, United States)