The trial by compurgators was one in which, if the accused could bring twelve of his neighbors, who would make oath that they believed him innocent, he was held to be so.
Lysander Spooner: “The trial by compurgators was one in which, if the accused could bring twelve of his neighbors, who would make oath that…”
Editor's note · Context
This describes a historical legal practice where an accused person could be acquitted based on the oaths of their neighbors.
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They do not tell us of the almshouses, hospitals, schools, churches, etc., which, out of the purest charity and benevolence, they maintain for our benefit, out of the money they take from us.
In short, they acknowledge themselves hostes humani generis: enemies of the human race.
They acknowledge it to be our unquestioned right and duty to kill them, if we can; that they expect nothing else, than that we will kill them, if we can; and that we are only fools and cowards, if we do not kill them, by any and every…
They do not tell us that we are the freest and happiest people on earth, inasmuch as each of our male adults is allowed one voice in ten millions in the choice of the men, who are to rob, enslave, and murder us.