 Civil Law |
 ConvictionThese are relevant references from the Books where Conviction is mentioned. I make no pronouncements on these matters, but report them as I find them. Arrive at your own conclusions. I wish you well, Fogaban That her ear had been notched indicated that, by a magistrate, she had been found thief. Ear notching is the first penalty for a convicted thief in most Gorean cities, whether male or female. The second offense, by a male, is punished with the removal of the left hand, the third offense by the removal of the right. The penalty for a woman, for her second offense, if she is convicted, is to be reduced to slavery. Hunters of Gor Book 8 Pages 22 - 23 I suddenly recognized the girl. It was she who had cut my purse earlier in the day, the sensuous little wench, whose ear had been notched. I gather that she had not had such good fortune later in the day. I well knew what the punishment was for a Gorean female, following her second conviction for theft. On the flat-topped wagon, fastened to one side on a metal plate, already white with heat, was a brazier, from which protruded the handles of two irons. Also mounted on the wagon was a branding rack, of the sort popular in Tyros. It was, I conjectured, another instance of the cultural minglings which characterized the port of Lydius. The wagon stopped on the broad street, before the wharves, where the crowd could gather about. A judge climbed, on wooden stairs at the back of the wagon, to its surface. The other judges stood below him, on the street. The girl pulled at the leather binding fiber fastening her wrists behind her back. She moved her neck and head in the confinement of the chain and leather, at the end of the pole. "Will the Lady Tina of Lydius deign to face me?" asked the judge, using the courteous tones and terminology with which Gorean free women, often inordinately honored, are addressed. I looked quickly at Rim and Thurnock. "Tina!" I said. They grinned. "It must be she," said Rim, "who drugged Arn, and took his gold." Thurnock grinned. I, too, smiled. It must indeed be she. Arn, I supposed, would have much relished being here. I suspected that little Tina would cut few purses in the future. "Will the Lady Tina of Lydius please deign to face me?" asked the judge, with the same courtesy as before. The girl turned in the chain and leather to face her judge, standing removed from her and above her, in his white robes, trimmed with two borders, one of gold, the other of purple. "You have been tried, and convicted, of the crime of theft," intoned the judge. "She stole two gold pieces from me!" cried a man standing in the crowd. "And I had witnesses!" "It took an Ahn to catch her," said another man, laughing. The judge paid no attention to these speakings. "You have been tried and convicted of the crime of theft," said the judge, "for the second time." The girl's eyes were terrified. "It is now my duty, Lady Tina," said the judge, "to pass sentence upon you." She looked up at him. "Do you understand?" he asked. "Yes," she said, "my judge." "Are you prepared now, Lady Tina of Lydius," asked the judge, "to hear your sentence?" "Yes," she said, regarding him, "my judge." "I herewith sentence you, Lady Tina of Lydius," said the judge, "to slavery." |       
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