Legal Term: BILL OF PAINS AND PENALTIES

Definition: A special act of the legislature which inflicts a punishment, less than death, upon persons supposed to be guilty of high offences, Such as, treason and felony, without any conviction in the ordinary course of judicial proceedings. 2 Wood. Law Lect. 625. It differs from a bill of attainder in this, that the punishment inflicted by the latter is death.

2. The Constitution of the United States Provides that "no bill of attainder shall be passed." It has been judicially said by the supreme court of the United States, that " a bill of attainder may affect the life of an individual, or i-nay confiscate his property, or both." 6 Cranch, R. 138. in the sense of the constitution, then, it seems that bills of attainder include bills of pains and penalties. Story, Const. 1338. Vide Attainder, Bills of Attainder.

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