1. At common law, the act of extinguishing a person’s civil rights when that person is sentenced to death or declared an outlaw for committing a felony or treason.
2. Hist. A grand-jury proceeding to try whether a jury has given a false verdict.
3. The conviction of a jury so tried. See BILL OF ATTAINDER. — attaint ([schwa]-taynt), vb.
“The word attainder is derived from the Latin term attinctus, signifying stained or polluted, and includes, in its meaning, all those disabilities which flow from a capital sentence. On the attainder, the defendant is disqualified to be a witness in any court; he can bring no action, nor perform any of the legal functions which before he was admitted to discharge; he is, in short, regarded as dead in law.” 1 Joseph Chitty, A Practical Treatise on the Criminal Law 725 (2d ed. 1826).
