Death-Warrants — Pardons
Although we occasionally read in the public journals of the issue of the usual Death-warrant for the execution of a criminal, there is (except in the case of a peer of the realm) no such thing as a death-warrant ever signed by the Crown or by any one or more of the officers of the Crown; the only authority for the execution of a criminal convicted of a capital crime being the verbal sentence pronounced upon him in open court, which sentence the Sheriff is bound to take cognizance of and execute without any further authority. It is true that a written calendar of the offences and punishments of the prisoners is made out and signed by the Judge, of which a copy is delivered to the Sheriff; but this is only a memorandum and not an official document, and it is optional with the Judge to sign it or not.
The false notion of there being such a document as a Death-warrant for the execution of a criminal has been fostered to our own time by the frequent reference of writers of note to its existence. Sir Nathaniel Wraxall says of Dr. Dodd’s case in 1777—
“I have heard Lord Sackville recount the circumstances that took place in the council held on the occasion, at which the King assisted. To the firmness of the Lord Chief-Justice, Dodd’s execution was due: for, no sooner had he pronounced his decided opinion that no mercy ought to be extended, than the King, taking up the pen, signed the death-warrant.”
This is flatly contradicted in the Quarterly Review, No. 57, as follows:—Lord Sackville never could have told him any such thing—the King never signs any death-warrant—his pleasure on the Recorder’s report is in ordinary cases verbally, and in fatal cases silently, signified—and it is always guided by the opinion of the legal members of the Privy Council.
This popular error of the Death-warrant is fully explained, from an accredited legal source, in Things not generally known, First Series, p. 172.
It is erroneously supposed that the Sovereign can save a life that has been declared forfeit by the law; but the Sovereign’s sign-manual to a pardon is of no effect unless it be countersigned (that is, sanctioned) by a responsible minister.—J. Doran, F.S.A.; Last Journals of Horace Walpole, vol. i.