Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 602.0

529US2

Unit: $U52

[09-26-01 10:36:40] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 529 U. S. 513 (2000)

527

Opinion of the Court

Cases of Treason and Misprision of Treason, 7 & 8 Will. III,
ch. 3, § 2 (1695–1696), in 7 Statutes of the Realm 6 (reprint
1963).15 Thus, Fenwick knew that if he could induce either
Porter or Goodman to abscond, the case against him would
vanish.

9 Macaulay 171.

Fenwick ﬁrst tried his hand with Porter. Fenwick sent
his agent to attempt a bribe, which Porter initially accepted
in exchange for leaving for France. But then Porter simply
pocketed the bribe, turned in Fenwick’s agent (who was
promptly tried, convicted, and pilloried), and proceeded to
testify against Fenwick (along with Goodman) before a grand
jury.
Id., at 171–173. When the grand jury returned an
indictment for high treason, Fenwick attempted to ﬂee the
country himself, but was apprehended and brought before
the Lord Justices in London. Sensing an impending con-
viction, Fenwick threw himself on the mercy of the court
and offered to disclose all he knew of the Jacobite plotting,
aware all the while that the judges would soon leave the
city for their circuits, and a delay would thus buy him a few
weeks time.

Id., at 173–174.

Fenwick was granted time to write up his confession, but
rather than betray true Jacobites, he concocted a confession
calculated to accuse those loyal to William, hoping to intro-
duce embarrassment and perhaps a measure of instability
Id., at 175–178. William, however,
to the current regime.
at once perceived Fenwick’s design and rejected the con-
Id., at 178–
fession, along with any expectation of mercy.

15 That Act read, in relevant part:

“And bee it further enacted That . . . noe Person or Persons whatsoever
shall bee indicted tryed or attainted of High Treason . . . but by and upon
the Oaths and Testimony of Two lawfull Witnesses either both of them to
the same Overtact or one of them to one and another of them to another
Overtact of the same Treason unlesse the Party indicted and arraigned or
tryed shall willingly without violence in open Court confesse the same
or shall stand Mute or refuse to plead or in cases of High Treason shall
peremptorily challenge above the Number of Thirty ﬁve of the Jury . . . .”