A Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár évkönyve 24. 1997 (Debrecen, 1997)
Tanulmányok - Nagy Sándor: Kínvallatás a hajdúvárosok és a hajdúkerületi törvényszék előtt indított bűnügyekben
56 Nagy Sándor: Kínvallatás a hajdúvárosok és a ... Torture was not regulated by the old Hungarian laws, nevertheless, it was applied as early as the 15th century against non-noble suspects. The criminal and procedural codex issued by Ferdinand III for Lower Austria in 1656 detailed rules for the application of torture together with the description of the necessary devices and their use in the procedure. The codex was translated into Latin and the Jesuit teacher, Márton Szentiványi attached it as an enclosure to the collection of Hungarian laws passed before 1687. It was published in 1696 in Nagyszombat (Now Trnava in Slovakia). Since at that time there was no Book of Criminal Law in Hungary, the criminal courts applied a number of the rulings of the Latin codex in practice and those applicable to torture were also taken over and used in jurisdiction until the end of the feudal period. In the towns of the Heyducks , who were settled under the letter of privileges issued by Transylvanian Ruling Prince István Bocskai on 12th December 1605, jurisdiction was regulated in 1613. The investigations of criminal actions perpetrated in the territories of the towns were carried out by commissioners of the councils, jurisdiction was done by 12 jurors under the chairmanship of the Captains, who acted as heads of the municipalities. Putting the defendants to torture was ordered by the council with the aim of making them confess perpetration of the criminal act and name the alleged accomplices. Maria Theresa deprived the individual Hajdú towns of the power of life and death and transferred this right to the “aggregate of the Hajdú towns”, i.e. the Hajdú District. This decree implied the regulation of the jurisdictional scope of the Hajdú Town Councils and the Hajdú District Courts. The first-level judgement of major crimes was assigned to the Law-courts, which had previously operated as courts of appeals. Jurisdiction in minor crimes was done by the magistrates of the towns. The Law-court began its operation as first-level authority in 1757. From that time on it was this authority that had the right of ordering the application of torture, since this procedure was applicable against suspects in major cases. On the proposal of the official prosecutor these suspects were sentenced to undergoing investigation under grades one to four of torture, or a certain number of blows with a rod or cuts with a whip. Maria Theresa abolished torture with a 1776 decision, which was adopted by the court, too, nevertheless, investigations using blows and whipping continued to be ordered until the end of May 1780. The National Assembly, with Act No 42/1790 forbade investigation under torture because torture did not supply appropriate and suitable means for revealing the truth. The use of the rod and the whip were occasionally made use of by the commissioners of the Hajdú Towns in questioning the suspects even after the law had come into force. When those beaten lodged their complaints at the Hajdú District because of such events, the council or the criminal court - according to the results of the investigation - punished those abusing their official power. This illegal method of investigations was not characteristic of the Hajdú-town councils. This fact is verified by the fact that from 1797 to lsl January 1872, i.e. the date of the establishment of the unified state Law-courts and the resulting total termination of jurisdiction by the Hajdú-district court and the town councils , out of the 11,396 suspects questioned during the investigations of criminal cases in the six Hajdú towns only 16 lodged complaints for corporal injury done to them.
