I have seen in an Exeter paper an article taken from "NOTES AND
QUERIES," entitled "Execution under singular Circumstances," the writer
of which is in manifest error. There is no such thing as a warrant for
execution; I will venture to say it could not have happened as is
therein stated. I have been repeatedly undersheriff of Devon, and
therefore beg to state the mode in which executions take place.
At the end of the assizes the crown-bar judge and the clerk of assize
sit down quietly together, and go over the sentences of the prisoners,
after which they are classed, and a fair copy signed by the clerk of the
assize--not the judge--is delivered to the undersheriff, which is his
only authority for carrying the different sentences into execution. If a
man is to be hung, opposite his name is written, "Let him be hanged by
the neck," and an asterisk is added to draw the undersheriff's
attention. Should the man afterwards be respited, the judge, or the
clerk of assize, writes to the undersheriff, and also (_ex abundanti
cautelâ_) to the gaoler, to say so. Should the undersheriff hear nothing
further, he hangs the man at the end of the respite, as a matter of
course. A reprieve comes from the secretary of state's office. At the
end of the shrievalty this list of sentences is sent to the Court of
Exchequer, as forming part of what is called the Bill of Cravings, and
in which the sheriff is allowed a certain sum towards the expenses of
the execution. What may be the practice in _London_ I do not know, but
the above would be the practice at Winchester.