lynch law

American  

noun

1. the administration of summary punishment, especially death, upon a suspected, accused, or convicted person by a mob acting without legal process or authority.

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lynch law British  

noun

1. the practice of condemning and punishing a person by mob action without a proper trial

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lynch law Cultural  

1. The punishment of supposed criminals, especially by hanging, by agreement of a crowd and without a genuine criminal trial. Lynch law was used in the early settlement of the West as a way of maintaining minimal law and order before a sheriff and courts could be set up. It has also been used to deprive unpopular suspects of their rights and to satisfy a mob's thirst for vengeance. Lynch law was often used by whites in the South to terrorize and subjugate blacks.

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Etymology

Origin of lynch law

1805–15, after the self-instituted tribunals presided over by William Lynch (1742–1820) of Pittsylvania, Va., c1776

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lynch law

The U.N.'s Trygve Lie snapped back: "I am taking orderly and legal measures . . . without recourse to lynch law and smear."

From Time Magazine Archive

Where people have the right of trial in a legally constituted court of law, they must refrain from mob rule or from lynch law.

From The Short Constitution by William F. Russell

The safeguards of trial by jury, regular judicial procedure, and habeas corpus were established, in order that the methods of civilized life might take the place of the rough-and-ready justice of lynch law.

From History of the United States by Charles A. (Charles Austin) Beard

Upon any theory, the prohibition of sorcery by the Pentateuch was no more answerable for these iniquities than its other prohibitions for the lynch law of the backwoods.

From The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Exodus by G. A. Chadwick

She knew—had not all her woman's intuitions risen in clamorous warning—and yet she hoped, hoped despairingly, even though the dread alternative to the girl at the Wetmore ranch threatened lynch law for her brother.

From Judith of the Plains by Marie Manning