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Lord Chief Justice [Wilmotis?] Speech on [illegible] sentence of Death on the Criminals at Exeter Midsummer [Afrize?] 1957
My Fellow [Executives].
You all stand here convicted of crimes, for which the Law deems you guilty of Death. When the habitable parts of the Earth were reduced into Empires Kingdoms + Provinces, the legislature thought it [excepting?] to Establish Laws for the regulation and conduct of Mankind, and to preserve the community, in harmony and good order; and the offenders who violated those laws, were always subject to the penalties such laws inflicted; And was there to be no regulation made, no law or order to be observed, Confusion (underline) Murder (underline), Bloodshed (underline), Tyranny (underline), and Oppression (underline) from the rudest part of mankind, may be expected. And instead of [sitting?] down quietly, and Eating the fruit of our own fig tree, we should meet