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.