Conviction and sentence to exile or death by statute, as opposed to resulting from trial.
A disused form of disposition of a criminal suspect where a legislative assembly would draft and approve a statute which provided for the punishment of a specified person or group of persons, usually by death sentence.
Such a legislative disposition of a civil matter include forfeiture of property or of a person's livelihood, are also known as "bills of pain and penalties" (see R v Bowen below).
In November 1988, in a case known as R. v. Bowen, (published at (1989) 91 Alberta Reports 2641), the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench defined a bill of attainder as:
"... a legislative finding of guilt of treason or felony and enactment of punishment therefor, by exile or death.
"Parliamentary acts inflicting milder punishments were entitled bills of pains and penalties, and provided for the forfeiture of civil rights, the loss of property rights, a prohibition against holding office, and other similar penalties in the nature of a deprivation of existing rights."
"In the United States of America, bills of attainder, including bills of pains and penalties, are constitutionally prohibited.
"As well, there is no longer a requirement for the legislature to convict a person of a specified crime or to inflict the historical punishments of pain and/or death in order for a statute to constitute a bill of attainder.
"American law has never precluded the possibility that new burdens and deprivations might be legislatively fashioned that are inconsistent with the bill of attainder guarantee; nor need the offending statute include any formal legislative pronouncement of moral blameworthiness or intent to punish the targeted individual, group, or corporation: Nixon v. Administrator of General Services et al., (1977) 433 U.S. 425.
"In the United States, the question is whether the legislation has a punitive objective or a legitimate, non-punitive, legislative purpose.
"According to the American jurisprudence, where such legitimate legislative purposes do not appear, it is reasonable to conclude, that punishment of individuals disadvantaged by the enactment was the purpose of the decision makers."
The Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 9, paragraph 3 provides that: "No Bill of Attainder ... will be passed."
Henry 8th was particularly fond of this abusive prerogative as he bullied Parliament into sending Thomas Cromwell (in 1540, pictured) and one of his wives (Catherine Howard in 1542) to death by "Act of Attainder".
The last bill of attainder was passed against an Ireland independence leader, Edward Fitzgerald, in 1798 confiscating all his property.