Short Stuff: Outlawry | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. to sitting in for Dave and uh this is a. very special short stuff Chuck because. Dave uh requested this topic so long ago. that I don't even remember when he did. yeah it it uh every once in a while a. colleague will uh drum up the nerve to. approach us very sheepishly with head. bowed say M what do you guys think about.

this idea and Joshua wave them away and. say it shall be on the list in seven. years time yes hence or so right give or. take seven more years we shall do. outlawry and we are finally so this. one's for you Dave um and it's a good. idea too because most people think of. Outlaws as a specific you know like um.

yes exactly a lot of people think of. Johnny Cash when they think Outlaw don't. they yeah Outlaw country music it's a. thing but this turns out to have been an. actual legal um uh standing yes uh that. could be applied to people that was not. a pleasant thing to have applied to you. and it basically meant that buddy you're. on your own um it was it was applied at. least in a lot of cases to fugitives but. like we think of fugitives today is like.

people who the US Marshall service goes. and gets like we talked about an. operation Flagship that that kind of. falls under the same rubric but um this. was a fugitive in that like they were. summoned to court they decided not to. come to court and after a certain. procedure they were declared Outlaws and. that that meant like the law no longer. applies to them all the protections that. are afforded to you are gone and it does. seem a little harsh I have to say um for. just failing to appear in court.

yeah uh this was a long time ago though. so who who knows what was going on back. then sure uh mainly medieval England is. what we're talking about but the. earliest kind of this outlaw status uh. became a law in 6th Century Frankish law. uh called The Lex. salika um this was under King Clovis uh. early 500s so this is a long long time. ago and this is basically like yet if. you don't respond to a summons um then. you're outside of the king's protection. um this kind of start the legal basis.

for that uh but medieval England is. where it's sort of most known uh if you. were over the age of 14 and you were a. man if you were a woman you were said to. be waved even though that it was. basically the same thing right um but if. you were over 14 and you were a male you. could be. outlawed um and basically say like like. you said like hey um anything you do uh. or anything anyone does to you rather. like we're not even going to prosecute. them um somebody could break into your.

house and steal your stuff and you're an. outlaw so sorry Ts for you yeah and so. like today our conception of Outlaw or. modern conception like say applying to. Johnny Cash like you said or Jesse James. or even Robin Hood um they're not types. to show up to a legal summon so it they. definitely do kind of fall into that. same category but we kind of have it. backwards and that we we think of those. people as like they chose a life of. crime outside the law right they're.

Outlaws but in reality with outlawry the. the the law itself has withdrawn itself. from you and left you outside the law. kind of in a really caddy um turn the. law is like oh you don't recognize my. jurisdiction over you you're not going. to come to court when we ask you to well. then fine I guess you don't need my. protections anymore either hence you're. an outlaw exactly uh and you mentioned a. process there was process it wasn't.

immediate um it was a pretty slow. process even uh but what would happen is. uh the the sheriff of wherever you were. um would locate these fugitives uh they. would do some investigating see if they. owned any property that they could get. uh to basically say like hey we've got. your you know your stash of chickens um. come to court maybe you'll get those. chickens back uh if that never happens. and they can't get them to come to court. or whatever uh then then the sheriff has.

to sit through this five different times. in court uh calling you know the. fugitive to come forward and after the. fifth non-appearance then they hit the. gavel or dropped the glove or whatever. the heck they did back then and said you. sir are an outlaw yeah and it was a big. deal to be declared Outlaws we'll see I. say we take our little break let's do it. come back and talk about outlawry a. little more how about that let's do it.

[Music]. Lear is fun with Josh. and. [Music]. you okay so when you were declared an. outlaw um essentially the way I saw it. written was that it's uh it amounted to. a conviction as well as an Extinction of.

civil rights so um there were different. kinds of Outlaw just failing to appear. in court seemed like Outlaw light. spelled l i t um but there was also. major outlawry in which case you were. really in trouble uh H like big felonies. treason Rebellion like big deal stuff. could have you labeled a major Outlaw. and again like if they did find your. cash of chickens those were theirs now. they could take them um any like real.

property you had anything that was yours. they could seize and keep and that's. pretty standard stuff even still today. like if you get caught with suspected. Drug Money the sheriff just keeps your. money and says prove it's not drug money. that's not like completely out of the. norm the thing that really makes. outlawry very surprising to us today is. anybody could come and take your. property anybody could come and beat you. up and kill you and because the law no.

longer applied to you there was no law. that was broken when they murdered you. they weren't breaking a law you had no. protection any longer and that's the. thing that makes it really kind of. shocking as far as like a a legal. formality is concerned to us today yeah. and even if someone you know your. neighbor didn't come and Rob your house. or try and kill you or something if you. had Outlaw status uh you were definitely. not a part of the community anymore uh. you were totally ostracized and shunned.

uh sometimes it was just sort of the the. way that you know everyone shuns. somebody which is very quietly and. passive aggressively uh sometimes it was. very much official though um if they had. an outlaw they captured um they could. say like hey uh we're gonna really um. ostracize you we're gonna send you to. Australia have fun over there yeah or. America yeah uh and you would end up. being an entur servant and one of the. other things I read about that that was.

kind of interesting that really drove. the point home it's not just like I'm an. indentured servant over here now I wish. I wasn't like maybe around your area you. might have some sympathetic friends that. might hide you or bring you food out in. the woods or something like that in. America or Australia you probably knew. no one so you had no help whatsoever and. you truly were ostracized so that in and. of itself was a big deal um another. thing that could happen to you too is. the sheriff ever did catch up with you.

and like there was a very high chance. you were just killed on site because um. you it was a death sentence for you as. well like they they had no obligation to. bring you in if they wanted to just kill. you and get it over with it the sheriff. could do that too you were so close to. saying O. ostracized oh I walked right past that. on purpose oh. okay I'm kidding I didn't chuck it was a. good one I'm glad you pointed it out uh. so this was you know usually um like.

real outlaws like real criminals even if. it was something like not appearing in. court uh you said it was often times a. lot worse but uh it wasn't always that. in some countries uh I know we talked. about it in our I think we had a leprosy. episode many years ago right MH yeah um. in India if you had leprosy you could be. banned and ostracized and essentially. get um something akin to an outlaw. status by being sent to a leper colony. where you had um where you didn't have. the same rights as everyone else else I.

think they call leprosy uh Hansen's. Disease now is that right M yeah but no. one would know what we meant if we just. said that so Pro probably not a few. people would and those people were very. satisfied that you just said that you. know yeah and I I knew the leper was not. something that people say anymore no um. yeah but yeah I can't remember who. Hansen was I think we talked about them. in the episode two but yeah that was a. long time ago but it's a good episode. haven't heard it in a while same.

um there were some ways to to have your. Outlaw status revoked one of them was. just showing up the court yeah there was. a specific Court you had to go to it was. the king's bench um in London so you had. to make your way to London and you. basically pled to have it removed and I. think that that was part of the. procedure because again if you showed up. to the court that had called you in the. first place you might be murdered and. that would be that yeah so that was I. think the initial part of the process. and there there does seem to be like a a.

pretty generous amount of forgiveness. for you know lesser crimes I think like. that where you just hadn't sh up. especially if you're like I'm sorry my. foot I twisted my ankle jogging and um I. I just couldn't make it to court or you. know my stupid cousin was supposed to to. take me but his cart broke down that. kind of thing um the court would. probably take pity on you and and remove. your Outlaw status because now you are. playing ball with them which is the. whole point of them conferring you an.

outlaw is that they you hadn't in the. first place what was really shocking to. me is that this same stuff could be. applied to somebody in a civil case like. somebody's like this guy stole my. chickens I'm going to sue you and you. didn't show up you could also be. considered an outlaw for that too that's. just nuts yeah that is remarkable to. hear and it wasn't until 1879 that. England revoked that part of their. Outlaw statute um that it couldn't be. used in civil cases anymore but as far.

as I know and I looked high and low for. definitive proof of this but just from. references I saw it seems like there's. still Outlaw books or outlaw statutes on. the books for criminal acts wow yeah. let's get rid of. those. so do it uh you got anything else I got. nothing else well Dave this was a great. idea thanks for it uh short Stu is.

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