How did benefit of clergy allow some people in England to avoid execution?

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Padded gurney with black restraints and IV stands, used for lethal injection, sits in a bare room with white cinder block walls at the New Mexico state penitentiary. — capital punishment Lethal-injection room.

The benefit of clergy was a legal mechanism in England that allowed individuals to escape the death penalty by claiming immunity from secular criminal law courts.1

Originally, this privilege applied to members of the clergy, who could present letters of ordination to be transferred to a bishop’s court, where capital punishment was not practiced. Over time, the application of this rule expanded significantly:1

Literacy Test: By the 14th century, royal judges allowed laymen convicted of capital offenses to claim the benefit if they could prove they were literate—typically by reading the 51st Psalm.1
Discretionary Use: Judges used this device as a way to mitigate the severity of the law for non-clerics.1
Limitations: Eventually, the privilege was restricted so that a layman could claim it only once.1

The practice declined as statutes increasingly designated specific crimes as punishable by death "without benefit of clergy," and it was ultimately abolished in the early 19th century.1