Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 424

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Volume 2, Page 424

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[001] for it is not the wickedness of the deed that is reprehensible but that the fear of
[002] guilt in the accused takes the place of a confession. Therefore if they are accused of
[003] or apprehended in the course of a crime and kill themselves let their goods be
[004] confiscated,⁸ that is, ⁹the goods of those who know they deserve death, as where if
[005] they were found guilty of their crime they would be condemned to death or exile.¹⁰
[006] ¹¹But if a man slays himself in weariness of life or because he is unwilling to endure
[007] further bodily pain ¹²<as where he drowns himself or throws himself from a height,¹³
[008] or kills himself in some other way,> he may have a successor,¹⁴ but his movable goods
[009] are confiscated.¹⁵ He does not lose his inheritance, only his movable goods, ¹⁶<because
[010] no felony is proved, nor is there any precedent crime for which he ought to be in peril
[011] of life or members.> ¹⁷<[This is true] of those who drown or are crushed, who die by
[012] misadventure, but if a man hangs himself are his heirs not thereby disinherited?
[013] [No], according to some, nor does his wife lose her dower, except in the case above,
[014] because [of] a felony¹⁸ done to himself he cannot be convicted.>¹⁹ ²⁰But if one lays
[015] violent hands upon himself without justification, through anger and ill-will, as
[016] where wishing to injure another but unable to accomplish his intention he kills
[017] himself, he is to be punished and shall have no successor, because the felony he
[018] intended to commit against the other is proved and punished, for one who does
[019] not spare himself would hardly have spared others, had he had the power.²¹ But
[020] what shall we say of a madman bereft of reason? And of the deranged, the
[021] delirious and the mentally retarded? or if one labouring under a high fever drowns
[022] himself or kills himself? Quaere whether such a one commits felony de se. It is
[023] submitted that he does not, nor do such persons forfeit their inheritance²² or their
[024] chattels, since they are without sense and reason and can no more commit an
[025] injuria or a felony than a brute animal, since they are not far removed from brutes,
[026] as is evident in the case of a minor, for if he should kill another while under age he
[027] would not suffer judgment.²³ [That a madman is not liable is true, unless he acts
[028] under pretense of madness while enjoying lucid intervals.]

Notes

9-10. D. 48.21.3.1: ‘bona eius qui in reatu mortis sibi conscivit, fisco vindicanda sunt, si eius criminis reus fuit, ut, si damnaretur, morte aut deportatione adficiendus esset,’

11-14. D. 48.21.3.4: ‘Si quis autem taedio vitae vel impatientia doloris alicuius vel alio modo vitam finierit, successorem habere divus Antoninus rescripsit.’

12. ‘ut si se ... alio modo,’ from lines 5-6; supra i, 389

13. D. 48.8.7: ‘si quis ex alto praecipitaverit’

15. ‘sed bona ... confiscentur, ‘from lines 10-11

16. ‘quia non ... deberet,’ from lines 6-8; om: ‘tales heredes habebunt,’ erroneous connexion between two independent addiciones

17. From below, last lines: supra i, 390

18. ‘de felonia’

19. Supra 366, P. and M., ii, 488 n.

20-21. D. 48.21.3.6: ‘si sine causa sibi manus intulit, puniendus est: qui enim sibi non pepercit, multo minus alii parcet.’

22. Supra 366; C. 9.50.1

23. Supra 324, 384