Outlawry is the harshest legal sentence available under the Baltic Union legal system, considered equivalent to capital punishment.
Overview[]
The Baltic law does not recognize traditional capital punishment, nor has a system of incarceration in place. Instead, perpetrators of serious crimes are sentenced to a term of banishment, during which they are forbidden to settle in any incorporated communities of the Union. In the early days of the Union, this was considered a very severe punishment, as an outcast deprived of community protection and assistance wasn't likely to survive for long. Although survival in the wilderness has since become much easier, being banished is still far from getting away lightly.
Outlawry is essentially a step-up, an ultimate form of banishment. Where a banished individual is allowed to return after the expiration of his sentence, and is still granted basic legal protections while exiled, provided he commits no further wrongdoing, an outlaw is not. Being outlawed strips the condemned of all legal rights and protections, and effectively marks him as fair target for mob justice - which, given the heinous nature of crimes meriting outlawry, is very likely to be dispensed by the community on short notice.
Process of outlawing[]
Outlawry is reserved for the most heinous crimes and habitual offenders deemed incorrigible. The crimes meriting outlawry are broadly divided into four classes:
- Crimes against Person - offenses that involve violence against person, i.e., murder, attempted murder, kidnapping. Crimes against property that involve the use of violence, such as armed robbery, are usually also classified as Crimes against Person. Sexual assault is not considered crime against person, falling under it's own category of sex offenses.
- Crimes against Property - theft (traditionally considered a very severe offense), extortion, fraud and other crimes that involve illicit acquisition of another's property without actual use of violence.
- Crimes against People - mostly encompasses various gross abuses of public office, such as graft, bribery, embezzlement and other forms of corruption. Perjury, association with a known outlaw, habitual offending and substance addiction are also classified as crimes against people.
- Crimes against Body - a legal euphemism for sex offenses. Rapists, child molesters, pimps and also those guilty of gross domestic abuse fall into this category.
The Legal Officers holding court will judge the necessity of outlawry on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the offender's previous reputation and criminal record, moral character, physical and mental state during the commission of the outlawable offense. If found guilty without mitigating circumstances, the sentence is pronounced publicly as follows:
Citizen [insert name], with the power entrusted by the Articles and the Law of the Union, this court finds you guilty of the crime of [insert crime] and sentences you to outlawry. You are hereby proclaimed dead to the Law and the People, all your rights and privileges hereby rescinded and perpetually forfeit, all oaths, contracts and debts owed to you rendered null and void. You shall hereby be branded with a perpetual mark of your shame, and thereafter be driven out of human society with a stick drenched in filth to suffer among your own kind until the end of your days, where none shall render you any aid, shelter or comfort whatsoever under penalty of sharing your fate.
The condemned is then seized and branded on the face and the right hand with the mark of his offense. In a derivation from historical criminal traditions of the Russophone world, the brands are symbols of card suits corresponding to the class of offense the outlaw has been convicted for.
- Spade - Crimes against Person
- Club - Crimes against Property
- Diamond - Crimes against People
- Heart - Crimes against Body
If guilty of more than one type outlawable offense, the outlaw will accordingly be branded with more than one brand. The brands aren't intended so much to hurt and humiliate the recipient as to warn law-abiding citizens of his untouchable status, since willful association with a known outlaw also carries the penalty of outlawry.
After branding, the offender is stripped and paraded through the streets, being beaten with an excrement-soaked stick for additional humiliation. The exact origins of this tradition are obscure, but are believed to be related with the Latvian proverb "to drive away with a shitty stick", implying a swift and violent removal from a job or place for a fault of one's own. Upon reaching the community gate, the offender is (usually) given his clothes back and given a customary head start of one to six hours (again depending on the mood of the mob) before any who might want to do some punishing of their own set out to hunt him down. Sometimes the outlaw may be given a small knife as a special grace.
Since outlawry rescinds all legal protections normally applied to people within the Baltic Union, the outlaw from there on becomes a legitimate target for violent retaliation - which, given the typical nature of outlawable offenses, is likely to be desired by quite a few. Any victims or their friends and relatives who might want revenge are free to pursue the outlaw and dispose of him however they see fit, any family members or friends of the outlaw being forbidden from intervening in any way. If the outlaw manages to elude their wrath, his troubles have only begun, however, as he must now contend with a lonely and brutish life out in the wilds, his only hope of long-term survival being finding a gang of raiders, oftentimes fellow outlaws, willing to take him in. Even there, his life is constantly in peril, as military patrols out in the wild are under standing orders to kill any outlaws on sight, ordinary citizens likewise being encouraged and expected to do so if an opportunity presents itself. Indeed, hunting for outlaws is often used as a field exercise for Baltic youths, a chance to hone their tracking, survival and combat skills.