TITLE IV. CONCERNING THE CUSTODY AND SENTENCE OF CONDEMNED PERSONS.
| I. | Where a Judge is Asked to Punish Crime, and is afterwards Treated with Contempt. |
| II. | The Governor of the City shall Aid the Judge in the Arrest of Persons Accused of Crime. |
| III. | Where a Person Breaks out of Prison, or Influences the Jailer for that Purpose. |
| IV. | Concerning the Compensation which may be Received from those in Custody. |
| V. | Where a Judge who is Lenient to Offenders against the Law, Releases a Criminal. |
| VI. | Concerning the Punishment of a Judge who Improperly Discharges a Criminal. |
| VII. | A Person Guilty of Crime shall Receive the Sentence of the Law not Secretly, but in Public. |
THE GLORIOUS FLAVIUS RECESVINTUS, KING.
I. Where a Judge is Asked to Punish Crime, and is afterwards Treated with Contempt.
If anyone should accuse another of theft, before a judge, and should afterwards be guilty of contempt of court, by accepting anything from the thief by way of compensation, without the judge’s knowledge, he shall be compelled to pay five solidi to the judge, on account of his insolence. Where a slave, without the knowledge of his master, is guilty of this offence, he shall receive a hundred lashes, and his master shall incur no liability whatever, on account of his act. But if he should do this with the consent of his master, the latter shall be compelled to pay the sum hereinbefore mentioned.
ANCIENT LAW.
II. The Governor of the City shall Aid the Judge in the Arrest of Persons Accused of Crime.
Whenever a Goth, or anyone else, is accused of crime, the judge must use every effort to arrest him. If, however, the judge himself is not sufficiently powerful to apprehend and imprison him, he may apply to the governor of the city for assistance, to effect what his authority of itself is not sufficient to accomplish. The aforesaid governor must immediately employ all his power to that end, in order that a person guilty of crime may not defy the law.
ANCIENT LAW.
III. Where a Person Breaks out of Prison, or Influences the Jailer for that Purpose.
If anyone should break out of prison, or should use undue influence upon the turnkey, or upon the jailer himself, or upon any keeper who has charge of prisoners, by means of which any prisoner should be unlawfully released, without the order of the judge; he shall suffer the same punishment which the escaped or liberated prisoner himself would have suffered.
ANCIENT LAW.
IV. Concerning the Compensation which may be Received from those in Custody.
Where a judge has charge of persons who have been arrested, or where officers have arrested them, or have received them for safe keeping; none of them shall be entitled to exact anything from said prisoners, on account of their keeping, or of their discharge, in case such prisoners should prove to be innocent. But where they are proved to be guilty, said officers shall not be forbidden to demand from each prisoner, one tremisa. If the party arrested should be released, upon giving the pecuniary compensation required by law, the judge himself shall pay over said sum to those who are entitled to the same, except the tenth part of it, which he himself shall have a right to retain for his trouble. If anyone should accept a larger amount than we have stated, he must restore it, twofold, to him from whom he exacted it.
ANCIENT LAW.
V. Where a Judge who is Lenient to Offenders against the Law, Releases a Criminal.
Where a judge, corrupted by a bribe of any description whatever, puts an innocent man to death, he himself shall be punished in like manner. If he should discharge a person who has committed a capital crime, he shall pay sevenfold the amount which he received for his release, to him who was injured by the criminal; and, stripped of judicial power, and rendered infamous, he shall be compelled by the judge who succeeds him, to produce in court the party whom he released; so that the latter, when, convicted, may undergo the punishment which he deserved.
THE GLORIOUS FLAVIUS RECESVINTUS, KING.
VI. Concerning the Punishment of a Judge who Improperly Discharges a Criminal.
A judge shall not spare a criminal, on account of the patronage or friendship of any person. If, in his leniency and partiality, he should not vindicate the innocent, or should discharge the guilty, he shall not be put to death, or undergo any mutilation of body; but shall only pay the sum required by law in satisfaction for homicide, or of any other crime which may be involved.
ANCIENT LAW.
VII. A Person Guilty of Crime shall Receive the Sentence of the Law not Secretly, but in Public.
When a judge inflicts the death penalty upon a criminal, he shall execute the sentence of the law not in secret and retired places, but publicly, in the sight of all.