Why were people branded after receiving benefit of clergy in England?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

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.

In English law, branding was used as a method of identification for individuals who had successfully claimed benefit of clergy to avoid the death penalty for a capital offense.12

Because benefit of clergy was originally intended to be a privilege for members of the church, the law eventually stipulated that a layman could claim this immunity only once. Branding served as a permanent, visible mark to ensure that an individual could not fraudulently claim the benefit a second time for subsequent crimes. From the reign of Henry VII onward, this practice was inflicted for all offenses that received the benefit of clergy, until it was abolished for such cases in 1822.12