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Did you know that "do you plead guilty to the charges?" was once an unlikely question to be answered?
Until the 18th century, common #law had a clause in which a person charged with a capital #offence would be subjected to torture if they did not plead either #guilty or not.
Many defendants refused to plead despite this prospect, because if they did, their heirs would not inherit their property!
#Torture by crushing was used to either elicit a plead or #death.