Prisoners' Fees Act 1783
PRISONERS’ FEES ACT 1783 | ||
CHAP. XXXIV. | ||
An Act for the Relief of Prisoners charged with Felony, or other Crimes, who shall be acquitted or discharged by Proclamation respecting their Fees, and giving a Recompence for such Fees. | ||
Prisoners against whom no bill found or acquitted. &c. | ||
enlarged immediately without fees. | ||
WHEREAS persons in custody for felonies, or other crimes, or on suspicion thereof, or as accessaries thereto, though no bills of indictment are found against them, or though they are acquitted on their trials, are nevertheless frequently detained for certain fees to the sheriffs, gaolers, or keepers of prisons, in whose custody they happen to be, and for fees to the clerks of the crown, and of the peace, his, or their deputies: for remedy whereof, be it enacted by the King’s most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal and commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That every prisoner who now is, or hereafter shall be charged with any crime or offence whatsoever, before any court holding criminal jurisdiction in this kingdom, against whom no bill of indictment shall be found by the grand jury, or who on his or her trial shall be acquitted, or who Shall be discharged by proclamation for want of prosecution, shall be immediately set at large in open court, without the payment of any see or sum of money to or for the use of any person whatsoever. |