Coventry Act (k[schwa]v-[schwa]n-tree orkov-). An 1803 English statute establishing the death penalty for anyone who, with malice aforethought, did “cut out or disable the tongue, put out an eye, slit the nose, cut off a nose or lip, or cut off or disable any limb or member of any subject; with the intention in so […]
murdrum (m[schwa]r-dr[schwa]m). [Law Latin] Hist. 1. The secret killing of someone. 2. A fine against the tithing where the secret and unsolved homicide took place. “The readiness with which the Norman administrators seized on this Anglo-Saxon system was probably due to its effectiveness in collecting the murdrum, the murder fine. In ordinary cases of homicide,