ACCUSATORY AND INftUISITORIAX PROCEDURE Two nictluxls by which iiersons
suspcitcil 111 riiiii- may 1k' tried. In tlio Iiuniisitorial met hod the judiies or other oflicials seek to (Ira v from the suspected person an aekiiou led^ment of fjiiilt by examiniiis him reirardinir all t lie einiimstanees of the crime and aliout liisown past life, TheyeomiK-lhiniiii many eases to jrivc siieli answers as they wish to hear. Formerly they resorted to the raek or thiimbserew; in some countries even to-day inlliction of blows or close conlinemeut is not imcommon. In the Accusjitory method, a representative of the commonwealth, perhaps of the injured party, frames a written accusation, in which it is set forth that the aecu.sed, ata specified time and place, committed a certain olTense. Thisaceiisjilion tiein;; denied 1)V the accused, orstanding controvertecl by ojieration of the law, the prosecutor brinirs his witnesses and other proofs as a plaintiff would do in a civil siit lor the recovery of propcrtj': and if the guilt of the accused is not established by the witnesses and proofs (evidence being also adduced in defense) to the sjitisfaction of the judges or jurors, an acquittal follows and the I
accused goes
Acconunodation
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
163
free.
Among
those nations that pay little or no regard to the freedom or rights of the individual, the Inquisitorial method is in vogue even at the present day, at least during the preliminary stagi'S of a prosecution; and the admissions of guilt that have been wheedled or extorted from the accvised are brought out against him on the final trial, which, in concession to th<^ spirit of the times, is cast into the Accusatory form. XeitherOreat Britain, with her colonies, nor the I'nited States of America, recognize the Inquisitorial m<thod at any stage and under the laws that govern the trial of criminals in these countries all confessions or admissions that have been elicited by phiying u|)on the hojjes or fears of the criminal are ruled out. The system that the .lewish sages worked out from the written law is altogether Accusjxtory, like the Anglo American method. It goes even farther, for it makes no use whatStatus of ever of admissions or of confessions of Witnesses, guilt, either in or out of court; the Scriptural command, "At the mouth of two witnes,ses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established " (Deut. xix. 1.5), is understood as excluding flic mouth of the accused; and the principle is laid down. " No one can make hims<'lf out guilty " (or " wicked "), and it appears often throughout the Talmud, The witnesses can testify only to what they have seen; or, when the offensi! consists of spoken words, as to what they have heard. T<'Stiniony as to the admissions of the accused is inadmissible; for even if they were made in open court, the judges would not listen to them, nor be iutluenced by them in
their decision. The treatise
Sanhedrin (chaps, iii,-vi,) deals with criminal procedure in cases in which the punish-
ment is (leath or exile to the cities of refuge, and incidentally in those ca-ses in which the inlliction of forty stripes niiglil be adjudged. The first chapter of the treatise .Makkot deals with the proceedings against false witiieswes (se<' Deut. xix. 1(>-'.21). The form in w hich the accusation should be drawn is not touch<(l upon either in the Mislmab or in the Oemani; it is not even (dear that the accusation was reduced to writing: although probably it was, since writing entered into other parts of the procedure, and two or three secretaries were employed by the court to retord the views of thi- judges, and heralds were sent forth at the execution to read
Aceldama
the sentence. At any rate, as the constitution, of the court varied according to the seriousness of the crime (it being in some cases constituted of three, in other cases of twenty-threu, judges), a definite charge nuist have been made before the trial coidd begin. We find nothing in the Talmud as to discrepancy or " variance " between the accusation anti proof, by reason of which so many criminals escape under the English American methods; but a discrepancy between the w itncsses on a material i)oint woulil leail to an acipiittal, whenever two witnesses do not testify to the same criminal act. C'ross-examination (dcri«tiiih wa-hnkirnh) is the same in criminal as in civil cases; the judge who carries it the farthest is praised; of Crosscourse, the witnesses are confronted examina- with the accused in open court "distion of ciples of the wise," who might be conWitnesses, sidered as theologians, but are also lawyers, sit in three rows in front of the judges, and practically form the bar. Any one of these disci|)les is permitted to raise and argue a point on behalf of the accused, and the latter also may argue on his own behalf; arguments in favor of ac(juitlal may be rai.sed even after sentence, up toihe very moment of execution. Only when all doubt is at an end the condenmed criminal is exhorted to confess, in order that he may find forgiveness in another world; but his confes,si(>n never can be used against him to assure his punishment
on earth. Curiously enough, this ctistom of exhorting the condemned man to confess his guilt in his last moments is based on the example of Confession Joshua (.losh. vii. 19), who besought of Crime. Achan, when he had been pointed out l)y an ordeal as the guilty man
who
took for his own use part of the spoil of .lericho, that he should glorify the God of Israel by confessing his sin before his execution. This short method of dealing with a man who has by his misdeed brought (iod's wrath <lown ujion his l>eopl(; was deemed "ailccision for the hour" (ImnuU f/iii'ii/i). not to be taken as a i)recedent in the affairs The sages whose institutions of life in later days. are discussed in the Mishnah never asked a culprit to confess, except at the last moment, and then only for the good of his soul (see Mishnah Sanh. iv. 1, 3, L.
V. 2, 4, vi. 1,2).
ACELDAMA
(R. V.,
Akeldama,
X. D.
NtoT
^pn=
"Field of IJIoud "): An ancient ossuary on the southeni extremity of .lerusidem. near the ravine of Hinnoni. The field once contained lich clay deposits
which were worked by
potters.
A
red clay
is still
in its neighborhood. The " i)otter's bouse " mentioned in .ler, xviii, l-(i is thought to have stood
dug
there; not far from it was the gale I.larsit and "the valley of the son of llinnom " (sic .ler. xix. 2), Later Christian it was used as a cemetery for non-.lews. tradition connects itwith thedeathof .ludas Iscariot, or agreed to buy who is supposed to have bought it. it. with the mon<'V be received for betraying Jesus (.Matt, xxvii. ti-S; Acts. i. li»). The .Vceldamadlakleddanun)of today presents a large, square s<-pulcher, of which the soithern half is excavated in the rock, the remainder biing built of nui.ssive masonrv. In thecentir standsa liugi' jiillar. eonslrucled partly The of rough blocks ami partiv of |iolish<il stones. lloor is covered with moidering bones, this repository having been in vise as late as the first tpiartiT Much of its clay was of the nineteenth cenlurv.
taken
away by Empress Helena and
other prominent
