4 - The Bloody Code and the Logic of Legal Reform

Summary

As Crane awaited his September trial, St. George Tucker spent his summer working on revisions to Virginia’s laws. Virginians had long agreed on the need to revise the state’s laws, especially criminal laws. England’s “bloody code” contained many capital crimes, and thinkers like Locke, Montesquieu, Beccaria, Blackstone, and in Virginia, Jefferson found such widespread use of the death penalty both unrepublican and counterproductive. But Jefferson’s reform bill, which relied heavily on Beccaria, failed in the 1780s, and in 1791 Virginia was still saddled with the Bloody Code. Although Judge Tucker agreed with the need to reform, he was less enamored with Jefferson’s proposed reforms, particularly its strict reliance and Beccaria and its abolition of pardons.