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EXECUTION Definition & Legal Meaning

Definition & Citations:

The completion, fulfillment, or perfecting of anything, or carrying it into operation and effect. The signing, sealing, and delivery of a deed. The signing and publication of a will. The performance of a contract according to its terms.In practice. The last stage of a suit, whereby possession is obtained of anything recovered. It is styled “final process,” and consists In putting the sentence of the law in force. 3 Bl. Comm. 412. The carrying into effect of the sentence or judgment of a court, U. S. v. Nourse, 9 Pet. 28, 9 L. Ed. 31;Griffith v. Fowler, IS Vt. 394; Pierson v. Hammond. 22 Tex. 5S7; Brown v. U. S., 0 Ct.CI. ITS: Ilurlhutt v. Currier. 08 N. II. 94, 38 Atl. 002; Darby v. Carson, 9 Ohio, 149. Also the name of a writ issued to a sheriff, constable, or marshal, authorizing and requiring him to execute the judgment of the court. At common law, executions are said to be either final or quousque; the former,where complete satisfaction of the debt is intended to be procured by this process; the latter, where the execution is only a means to an end, as where the defendant is arrested on ca. sa .In criminal law. The carrying into effect the sentence of the law by the infliction of capital punishment 4 Bl. Comm. 403; 4 Steph. Comm. 470. It is a vulgar error to speak of the “execution” of a convicted criminal. It is the sentenceof the court which is “executed;” the criminal is put to death.In French law. A method of obtaining satisfaction of a debt or claim by sale of the debtor’s property privately, f. e., without judicial process, authorized by the deed or agreement of the parties or by custom ; as, in the case of a stockbroker, who may sell securities of his customer, bought under his instructions or deposited by him, to indemnify himself or make good a debt Arg. Fr. Merc. Law, 557.

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