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To: MarthaNOStewart
"...we got our criminal laws from England. They were based on biblical scripture from the Ten Commandments..."

Uhhh...I think not.

"For we know that the common law is that system of law which was introduced by the Saxons on their settlement in England, and altered from time to time by proper legislative authority from that time to the date of Magna Charta, which terminates the period of the common law, or lex non scripta, and commences that of the statute law, or Lex Scripta.

"This settlement took place about the middle of the fifth century. But Christianity was not introduced till the seventh century; the conversion of the first christian king of the Heptarchy having taken place about the year 598, and that of the last about 686.

"Here, then, was a space of two hundred years, during which the common law was in existence, and Christianity no part of it. If it ever was adopted, therefore, into the common law, it must have been between the introduction of Christianity and the date of the Magna Charta.

"But of the laws of this period we have a tolerable collection by Lambard and Wilkins, probably not perfect, but neither very defective; and if any one chooses to build a doctrine on any law of that period, supposed to have been lost, it is incumbent on him to prove it to have existed, and what were its contents.

"These were so far alterations of the common law, and became themselves a part of it. But none of these adopt Christianity as a part of the common law. If, therefore, from the settlement of the Saxons to the introduction of Christianity among them, that system of religion could not be a part of the common law, because they were not yet Christians, and if, having their laws from that period to the close of the common law, we are all able to find among them no such act of adoption, we may safely affirm (though contradicted by all the judges and writers on earth) that Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law."

-- Thomas Jefferson

123 posted on 08/21/2003 7:21:47 PM PDT by Luis Gonzalez (I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together)
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To: Luis Gonzalez
Thanks I knew something was wrong there... did I get this right in my reading of it?
148 posted on 08/21/2003 7:32:20 PM PDT by Robert_Paulson2 (If we just erect a big, expensive stone monument... everything will be alright!)
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To: Luis Gonzalez
I TEACH CRIMINAL JUSTICE, AND YOU ARE FULL OF HOT AIR!!
151 posted on 08/21/2003 7:34:56 PM PDT by MarthaNOStewart
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To: Luis Gonzalez
Jefferson's knowledge of ancient England meshed with the knowledge of his times. More recently it's thought that Christians and Jews were in England with the Romans.
155 posted on 08/21/2003 7:36:54 PM PDT by bvw (Burma Shave)
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