Arrest, trial, and punishment took little time, sometimes only a few hours. Banishment, branding, cutting off ears, flogging, and hanging are our most popular forms of punishment. Lynchings are so common that they are often viewed as a form of entertainment. Banishment of an undesirable character is caused by jumping a claim or attacking someone. He is warned to never return to the diggings.
Long hair is worn by earless felons who lost their ears as a punishment of a crime.
A hot iron caused a permanent scar in branding. In flogging, the criminal is lashed with whips used by the navy and the army. For robbers and murderers, a death sentence, hanging, is used. The criminal is hung from a tree until dead. Most districts believed that if a man stayed away from his claim for a certain number of days, then that claim no longer belonged to him.