[HN Gopher] Trial of Mary Wade
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       Trial of Mary Wade
        
       Author : qwertyuiop_
       Score  : 18 points
       Date   : 2021-11-21 17:45 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.oldbaileyonline.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.oldbaileyonline.org)
        
       | bob331 wrote:
       | Sounds almost as bad as today's Saudi Arabia
        
       | bombcar wrote:
       | It says death but they were sent to Australia instead.
       | 
       | https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/life?id=obpt17890114-58-de...
       | 
       | Perhaps worse?
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | bdash wrote:
         | It sounds like things turned out ok after all
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wade
        
           | spywaregorilla wrote:
           | > On 11 March 1789, King George III was proclaimed cured of
           | an unnamed madness; it is assumed that he suffered from
           | porphyria, a degenerative mental disease. A month later, in
           | the spirit of celebration, all the women on death row,
           | including Mary Wade, had their sentences commuted to penal
           | transportation to Australia.
           | 
           | What a time
        
             | Turing_Machine wrote:
             | At one time there were actually more capital crimes than
             | non-capital ones under British law, I believe.
             | 
             | Edit: According to Wikipedia, there were 220 capital
             | offenses under the so-called "Bloody Code".
             | 
             | Offenders as young as 7 years old were subject to capital
             | punishment.
             | 
             | However, many who were sentenced were reprieved, for
             | various reasons. Between 1770 and 1830, out of an estimated
             | 35,000 death sentences, only about 7,000 were actually
             | executed.
        
         | gumby wrote:
         | Typically not, apparently given the station of most
         | transportees. In Australia the policing was less harsh (at
         | least for those who had served a sentence) and food was more
         | plentiful.
         | 
         | I saw a 19th century photo of a returned transportee and a
         | Londoner and the Londoner appeared scrawny and malnourished.
         | 
         | I'm not trying to make it sound _good_. Apparently my great
         | great grandfather's history (such as it is) begins with him as
         | an adult in eastern South Australia (a free colony, no
         | transportation). The best theory is he escaped from Victoria.
         | It must have really sucked for someone to make that journey.
        
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       (page generated 2021-11-21 23:01 UTC)