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In English criminal law
Criminal law

The term criminal law, sometimes called penal law, refers to any of various bodies of rules in different jurisdictions whose common characteristic is the potential for unique and often severe impositions as punishment for failure to comply....
, attainder or attinctura is the metaphorical 'stain' or 'corruption of blood' which arises from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony
Felony

A felony is a serious crime in the United States and previously other common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors....
 or treason
Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of loyalty to one's sovereignty or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife ....
). It entails losing not only one's property and hereditary titles, but typically also the right to pass them on to one's heirs. Both men and women condemned of capital crimes could be attainted.

Attainder by confession results from a guilty plea at the bar before judges or before the coroner
Coroner

A coroner or forensics examiner is an official responsible for investigating deaths, particularly some of those happening under unusual circumstances, and determining the cause of death....
 in sanctuary.






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In English criminal law
Criminal law

The term criminal law, sometimes called penal law, refers to any of various bodies of rules in different jurisdictions whose common characteristic is the potential for unique and often severe impositions as punishment for failure to comply....
, attainder or attinctura is the metaphorical 'stain' or 'corruption of blood' which arises from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony
Felony

A felony is a serious crime in the United States and previously other common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors....
 or treason
Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of loyalty to one's sovereignty or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife ....
). It entails losing not only one's property and hereditary titles, but typically also the right to pass them on to one's heirs. Both men and women condemned of capital crimes could be attainted.

Attainder by confession results from a guilty plea at the bar before judges or before the coroner
Coroner

A coroner or forensics examiner is an official responsible for investigating deaths, particularly some of those happening under unusual circumstances, and determining the cause of death....
 in sanctuary. Attainder by verdict results from conviction by a jury. Attainder by process results from a legislative act outlawing
Outlaw

An outlaw or bandit is a person living the lifestyle of outlawry; the word literally means "outside the law", by folk-etymology from the original meaning "laid outside" of the Old Norse word ?tlagi, from which the word outlaw was borrowed into English....
 a fugitive.

Passage in Parliament

In the Westminster system
Westminster System

The Westminster system is a Democracy parliamentary system of government modelled after the British government . The term comes from the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the UK Parliament....
, a bill of attainder
Bill of attainder

A bill of attainder is an act of legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a trial....
 is a bill passed by Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislature in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories....
 attainting persons condemned for high treason
High treason

High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's country. Participating in a war against one's country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps the best-known examples of high treason....
, or, in rare cases, a lesser crime. Notably, a person thus attainted need not have been convicted of treason in court of law. Consequently, attainder has historically been used for political purposes against people whose guilt would have been difficult to prove, or indeed who were entirely innocent. Bills of attainder are also available to condemn criminals who cannot be brought to justice.

A bill of attainder was last passed in Britain in 1798. Attainders by confession, verdict and process were abolished in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 in 1870.

Section 9 of Article One of the United States Constitution
Article One of the United States Constitution

Article One of the United States Constitution describes the powers of the legislature of the Federal government of the United States, known as United States Congress, which includes the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate....
 provides that no bill of attainder or ex post facto law
Ex post facto law

An ex post facto law or retroactive law, is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of acts committed or the legal status of facts and relationships that existed prior to the enactment of the law....
 shall be passed by Congress. Another section forbids all states from passing them.

Corruption of blood

Corruption of blood is one of the consequences of attainder. The descendants of an attainted person could not inherit either from the attainted criminal (whose property had been forfeited on conviction) or from their other relatives through the criminal. For example, if a son is executed for a crime leaving innocent grandsons as orphans, and the innocent grandfather has other children besides the criminal, the property of the criminal is forfeited to the crown. But when the grandfather dies, the property of grandfather will not be seized by the Crown, nor pass to the grandchildren: it passes to the other children of the grandfather.

While the United States Constitution
United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America; the Federal Government of the United States; and all the State & local governments and Territorial Administrative bodies contained therein....
 prohibits corruption of blood, it is nonetheless possible in many states for a crime to affect the inheritance rights of innocent relatives of a criminal due to the slayer rule
Slayer rule

The slayer rule, in the common law of inheritance, is a doctrine that prohibits inheritance by a person who murders someone from whom he or she stands to inherit....
.

Examples of cases where a person's property was subject to attainder


  • Thomas Cromwell
  • of the Earl of Strafford
    Earl of Strafford

    Earl of Strafford is a title that has been created three times in British history. The first creation was in the Peerage of England in 1640 for Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, the close advisor of King Charles I of England....
  • Parker Wickham
    Parker Wickham

    Parker Wickham is famous for being a Loyalist politician who was banished from the State of New York under dubious circumstances.Wickham was the oldest son of Joseph Wickham and Abigail Parker of Cutchogue, New York, Long Island, New York....
  • Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel
    Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel

    Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel and 10th Earl of Surrey was an English medieval nobleman and military commander....