Attainder
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In English criminal law, attainder or attinctura is the stain or corruption of blood which arises from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony or treason).
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[edit] Definition
After a person has been condemned of a crime (felony or treason), property and title of influence are taken away from the condemned person and (usually; see 'Corruption of Blood' below) barred from reaching his family. Both men and women condemned of capital crimes could be attainted.
[edit] By confession
Attainder by confession is either by pleading guilty at the bar before the judges, and not putting one's self on one's trial by a jury; or before the coroner in sanctuary, when in ancient times, the offender was obliged to abjure the realm.
[edit] By verdict
Attainder by verdict is when the prisoner at the bar pleads not guilty to the indictment, and is pronounced guilty by the verdict of the jury.
[edit] By process
Attainder by process or outlawry is when the party flees, and is subsequently outlawed.
[edit] Passage in Parliament
A bill of attainder is a bill brought into Parliament for attainting persons condemned for high treason or any other crime (although Parliament would normally not bother legislating for common crimes). Notably, a person thus attainted need not have been convicted of treason in court of law; attainder has therefore historically been used for political purposes, where the guilt of a person would be difficult to prove or even fictitious. Bills of attainder are also available to condemn criminals who cannot be brought to justice because they are on the run and due process of outlawry is too cumbersome against them. Bill of attainder was last passed in 1798 in UK.
Attainders by confession, verdict and process were abolished in the United Kingdom in 1870.
The United States Constitution, Article I, section IX, 3, provides that no bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed by Congress. Another section forbids all states from passing them.
[edit] Corruption of Blood
Corruption of Blood is one of the consequences of attainder. The descendants of an attainted person could not inherit either from the attainted criminal (whose property had been forfeited on conviction) or from their other relatives through the executed criminal. For example, if a son is executed for a crime leaving innocent grandsons as orphans, and the innocent grandfather has other children besides the criminal, the property of the criminal is forfeited to the crown, but when the grandfather dies, the property of grandfather will not be seized by the Crown, nor pass to the grandchildren: it passes to the other children of the grandfather. United States by the Constitution forbids the punishment for treason from working corruption of blood; but common crimes can have similar results because in many states under slayer rule, even innocent relatives of an alleged slayer can be forbidden from inheriting from the victim.
