Note 24 — Chapter VI · Peine Forte et Dure.
Reading edition
Law Notes for May, 1910, p. 31; Watt’s “The Law’s Lumber Room.”
According to Rushworth, when John Felton was arraigned for the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham, in November, 1628, the Privy Council debated the question of their right to place the prisoner on the rack. It was finally decided that:
“Torture was not, with one exception, permitted at all, and in that one exception, it was permitted neither as a punishment nor as a means of getting evidence, but as a persuasion, to induce a man charged with felony, to put himself upon his trial.”
Vol. 44, Chamber’s Journal, pt. Jan.-June, 1867, p. 373.