Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2013 5:51 AM
Ancient History and Modern Constitutional Powers of
American Sheriffs- Part 1 & 2
Posted By: RumorMail [Send E-Mail]
Date: Wednesday, 3-Apr-2013 00:05:56
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/54006
Can America’s sheriffs save our Constitution
and our precious liberties? The exhaustive history of the sheriff has yet to
be written, but much is known of the rise of these county leaders, once
called shire reeves, in old England. Sheriffs are termed the “the oldest
appointment of the English crown.” They represent transition from simple
local rule to a nationalized attempt at keeping law and order. Sheriffs were
first established when the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were finally assembled into
the Wessex-based Kingdom of England sometime around 1000 AD.
In the Colonies, the Crown established
sheriffs, as done in Britain by royal decree. But, before long, the
democratic process was employed to elect them. Today, they are the last
bastion of popular representation in law enforcement. Ironically, it now
appears that the ancient sheriff, the last representative of popular, local
federalism—might be the last chance for America to retain our civil liberties
before the onslaught of Leviathan—the colossus of government tyranny.
This hope is best represented by the Oath
Keepers, a group educating and supporting local sheriffs as defenders of our
Constitution against creeping federal insurgency. Add to this the doctrine of
Nullification, or refusal to apply unconstitutional laws, which sheriffs are
now applying across America on various topics, such as gun regulations, and
refusing federal demand for control.
This article is composed in two parts to
better describe the history, function and constitutional warrant of the
local, county American sheriff.
I. What is a Sheriff
A sheriff is the main peace keeper of a county
in both ancient England and modern America. The office is defined by
Webster’s:
In the U.S., the chief law-enforcement officer
for the courts in a county. He is ordinarily elected, and he may appoint a
deputy. The sheriff and his deputy have the power of police officers to
enforce criminal law and may summon private citizens (the posse comitatus, or
“force of the county”) to help maintain the peace. The main judicial duty of
the sheriff is to execute processes and writs of the courts. Officers of this
name also exist in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. In England
the office of sheriff existed before the Norman Conquest (1066).
II. Ancient History of the Sheriff—Britain
The office of sheriff is said to be “the
oldest appointment of the English crown.” The term Sheriff is derived from
the ancient British designate “shire reeve.” A shire is an English term
defined by the Free Dictionary as: “A former administrative division of Great
Britain, equivalent to a county.” The term reeve is defined by Webster’s as:
“a local administrative agent of an Anglo-Saxon king,” or “a medieval English
manor officer responsible chiefly for overseeing the discharge of feudal
obligations.”
A. History of the Shire Reeves
Thomas Jefferson claimed of the office of
sheriff: “there is no honorable law enforcement authority in Anglo-American
law so ancient as that of the county sheriff whose role as a peace officer
goes back at least to the time of Alfred the Great.”
To the contrary, Schenectady, NY Sheriff
Buffardi offers this history of the beginnings of sheriffs in England to
about 1000 AD, where groups of men—called hundreds, were assembled for
defensive and taxation purposes:
The office of sheriff did not appear suddenly.
It’s prolonged development began over 1000 years ago in England, arising
simultaneously as local government structure evolved. This form of government
allowed early English people to be divided into smaller units subject to the
considerations of a national interest and central authority of the king. The
formation of the units was crucial to the central authority because the
population was scattered and Saxon kings had no large standing armies, a
centralized court system, or the ability to finance a government
appropriately. The small unit management therefore became crucial to a
national development of government.
While these shires (counties) were in the
developmental and refinement stage, a custodian was chosen by the fellow
members of the hundreds to be their “gerefa” or guardian. Later this title
was to become known as “reeve”. The combination of the unit known as scir or
shire and the administrative title of reeve would eventually develop into the
word “sheriff”. With the exception of king, no Englishns. The shire, ie county, was an ancient petty karliest n represented by an alderman by way of the old royal families. These naturally
tendeg Edgar.
Wessex King Cnut wrote a letter with one of
the earliest uses of the term “sheriff” in 1027, mentioning abuses already
associated with the office:
I command all the sheriffs and reeves over my
whole kingdom, as they wish to retain my friendship and their own safety,
that they employ no unjust force against any man neither rich nor poor, but
all men of noble or humble birth shall have the right to enjoy just law, from
which there is to be no deviation in any way, neither on account of the royal
favour nor out of respect for any powerful man, nor in order to amass money
for me.
III. The Rise of the Sheriff
Theodore Frank Thomas Plucknett describes “The
Rise of the Sheriff,” in his masterpiece A Concise History of the Common Law.
He explains how the creation of England in the early 10th century began with
the unified Heptarchy which evolved into the Wessex-based Kingdom of England.
This Anglo-Saxon Crown then began seek greater control by connecting with
local institutions. The shire, ie county, was an ancient petty kingdom,
represented by an alderman by way of the old royal families. These naturally
tended to be resistant to modern, kingly centralization. To combat this resistance,
the king sent a reeve to stand besides the alderman and represent his
position. Plucknett describes this evolution:
Duties of the king’s reeve were very
miscellaneous, including both administration and judicial business. It was
inevitable as time went on the King’s reeve should grow in importance at the
expense of the alderman, and that finally he should take the alderman’s place
and become the principal officer of the shire under the name of “sheriff” or
“shire reeve”.
As mentioned by Cnut, sheriffs over the years
were accused of various acts of tyranny, and the king was forced to limit his
power by keeping appointments to one year, and also demand an accounting
afterward. Plucknett describes the battle for power between the burgeoning
sheriffs and the crown:
At the time of the Norman Conquest the
sheriff, as the King’s representative, enjoyed much judicial power, causing
the Crown great anxiety, for there was no effective means of controlling him,
except an occasional remedy of discharging him when popular unrest grew too
strong. A number of attempts were made to find a check upon his powers as a
royal judge. Sometimes the Crown appointed a permanent justiciar to sit in
the county; the office of coroner was developed in order to serve as a check
upon the sheriff; by the Great Charter (Magna Carta) it was finally declared
no sheriff should for the future hold pleas of the Crown. This definitive
solution robbed the sheriff of a great deal of his ancient power…
IV. Sheriff’s Consolidation of Power: The
Tourn & Justicial Debt Collection
A. Biennial Tourn
The sheriff’s began to take on greater powers,
by taking on bailiffs, absorbing tax powers, and quite often also acting as
judges, according to Plucknett:
Sheriffs secured control over the hundred by
appointing bailiffs. His influence further increased by means of the
“Sheriff’s Tourn”. Twice a year local meetings were held, attended by the
sheriff or his deputy, at which there came to meet him the reeve and his four
best men to undergo a searching examination at his hands. They laid before
them the most suspicious members of their community; those suspected of grave
matters were arrested by the sheriff and held for the King’s Justice, while
less serious offenders were amerced by the sheriff. By the close of the
middle ages the Justices of the Peace took over for the tourns.
B. Sheriff as Judge & Debt Collector
Pucknett explains how the sheriff’s also were
involved in collecting debts:
Another jurisdiction was exercised by the
sheriff in the county court in virtue of a royal writ addressed to him,
beginning with the word iusticies, “do justice upon” the defendant “so that
rightly and without delay he render” to the plaintiff, e.g. a debt which he
owes. Other writs were also “viscontial”, giving the sheriff jurisdiction,
although not drawn in the form justicies. The implication seems clearly that
down to the middle of the 13th century a large part of the nation’s
litigation was in the county court. In this type of proceeding the sheriff
was a judge in the modern sense, and the county court was merely the occasion
upon which he exercised his jurisdiction. So complicated a situation could
only result in confusion, and in fact it is very difficult to disentangle the
two branches; The classical doctrine as described by Coke makes the suitors
judges of the court in almost all cases. Thus was fulfilled the ancient
policy of the crown in reducing the judicial importance of the sheriff at
every possible opportunity.
V. Collapse of Sheriff’s Power: Evolution to
Penal Reformer
A. Sheriff Howard, Prison Rehabilitator
Buffardi explains how the British sheriff’s
pshould not just be a place for industry and
lrisons, they humanized the
institution. Here, they exerted a mighty influence to help reform these
terrible structures into more humane places.
Since the 16th century, the duties of sheriffs
in England dealt chiefly with judicial issues, enforcement of debt, and
service of process. John Howard, high sheriff of Bedfordshire, became a
social activist for penal reform. He exercised the traditional, but usually
neglected responsibility of visiting prisons and institutions. He was shocked
at the conditions, particularly that jailers received no salary but made
their living from prisoners in the form of fees. Many prisoners who had been
discharged by the court system still remained in custody because they could
not pay the discharge fees owed to their jailers.
Howard inspected prisons, prison ships, and
houses of corrections throughout Europe and the US, finding all the
facilities overcrowded, undisciplined, dirty, and ridden with disease.
Thousands of prisoners were dying annually of diseases. Howard’s graphic
descriptions of prison conditions horrified the English people. In 1779, he
drafted the “Penitentiary Act,” based upon principles of secure and clean
facility. Howard believed prison should not just be a place for industry and
labor but also a place for contrition and penitence—a place that reformed
inmates through the inculcation of good habits and religious instruction. All
prisoners were to have healthy diets, access to conveniences that allowed for
good hygiene, and all prisoners were to be provided with uniforms.
B. Decline of British Sheriffs & Rise of
American
According to Buffardi, around the time of the
development of the American sheriff, the English equivalent began to decline:
Since mid-16th century until the present,
England’s sheriffs have had little political clout or government importance
compared to the wealth of power enjoyed during medieval times. The justice of
the peace relieved the last vestiges of the position’s former judicial
duties. The Lord’s Lieutenant removed its military importance and appointool in Virginia, where he
earned a JD and a Master’s degree in Government. He spent a stint working as
a researcher and writer of academic articles at a Miami law school, focusing
on ancient law and society. He has also been employed as a university Speech
& Debate professor. He then returned West and worked as an assistant
district attorney. Kelly is now is a private n faltering office to flourish in a transplanted environment. Invigorated in
the New World, the office of sheriff would find a whole new potential.
Conclusion
The fascinating rise and decline of the
British sheriff foreshadows next week’s history of the American sheriff and
their still-undiminished importance as local law-keeper and defender of the
Constitution.
(5) Comments
Kelly O’Connell hosts American Anthem on CFP
Radio Sundays at 4 pm (EST).
Kelly O’Connell is an author and attorney. He
was born on the West Coast, raised in Las Vegas, and matriculated from the
University of Oregon. After laboring for the Reformed Church in Galway,
Ireland, he returned to America and attended law school in Virginia, where he
earned a JD and a Master’s degree in Government. He spent a stint working as
a researcher and writer of academic articles at a Miami law school, focusing
on ancient law and society. He has also been employed as a university Speech
& Debate professor. He then returned West and worked as an assistant
district attorney. Kelly is now is a private practitioner with a small law
practice in New Mexico. Kelly is now host of a daily, Monday to Friday talk
show at AM KOBE called AM Las Cruces w/Kelly O’Connell
Kelly can be reached at: hibernian1@gmail.com
Part II on LINK
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/54176