Peine forte et dure

Peine forte et dure was a method of judicial torture formerly used within the English common law legal system against a defendant who refused to enter a plea to a criminal charge. Under the practice, the accused was pressed beneath increasingly heavy stones or weights placed on the chest until they either entered a plea or died from the pressure. Because English law at the time could not try a defendant who had not pleaded, refusal to plead was itself treated as an obstruction that officials sought to overcome through this coercive measure. The practice illustrates the historical common law rule that a criminal trial required the defendant to enter a plea before it could proceed. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/