A Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár évkönyve 27. 2000 (Debrecen, 2000)

Tanulmányok - Nagy Sándor: A hajdúkerületi törvényszék büntető ítéletei a fellebbviteli bíróságok előtt 1793-1850

Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár Évkönyve XXVII

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The Criminal Sentences of the Hajdú District Court in front of Courts of Appeal between 1793-1850

Part II

Sándor Nagy

In Part I of the study, the author discussed the establishment of the right of appeal lor ordinary citizens (who were not members of the nobility) and the death sentences inflicted between 1575 and 1850.

In Part II, he describes the treatment of the other sentences declared by the Hajdú District Courts through the different channels of appeal. There were altogether 782 defendants concerned by such sentences.

The defendants committed some of the following range of crimes: felonious crimes and crimes committed against public order, public safety, and property rights, crimes committed against public administration authorities and public administration officials, and common law and order.

The study lists the number of defendants in the individual criminal cases and the sentences inflicted upon them.

Although facts and figures are usually appropriate for the purposes of reaching certain conclusions concerning the justice system, in order to shed light on the work done at the levels of courts of the first instance and courts of the second instance, it is essential to briefly describe and discuss the justifications given about the more characteristic facts of the cases, sentences, and other court measures.

The author managed to establish the characteristic features of the Royal Court of Appeal and the Seven-Member Court of Appeal, alongside that of the ordinary courts of appeal, on the basis of a comparison between the figures and the sentence-related facts of the cases. Based on an examination of the sentences accepted by the courts of appeals, he arrived at the conclusion that the practice of bringing verdicts at the district courts was balanced and essentially void of bias and extremities. He also found that there was an endeavor on the part of the district courts to remain objective also in the extent of the sen-