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When did benefit of clergy end in England?
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capital punishment
Lethal-injection room.
The benefit of clergy, a legal mechanism used to avoid the death penalty, was finally abolished in England in the early 19th century.1
While originally intended to grant clergy immunity from secular criminal law, the practice evolved to allow laymen to escape capital punishment by demonstrating literacy. Over time, its application was restricted as various statutes declared specific crimes punishable by death "without benefit of clergy," and the practice was eventually rendered obsolete before its formal abolition.1