The reprieve is an act of state by which a person who is punishable under the law is wholly or partly discharged from the legal consequences of their crime for reasons of higher justice [4. 763]. Unlike the medieval balance between mercy and law, with judgment according to mercy, in which a court could strike down or alter a verdict on the basis of considerations of equity, the early modern reprieve had its roots in the growing independent authority of the state. While judging a criminal was the responsibility of the judiciary, the reprieve became a special right of the ruler, who…