Harvey v. State

URBIGKIT, Justice,

specially concurring.

On July 28, 1957, in a meadow beside the Thames, west of London, between Staines and Windsor, the American Bar Association dedicated a memorial to the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta was exacted from King John at the old council ground called Runnymede in June of 1215 by means which would have been called extortionate if done by lesser men for lesser gain. Its fortieth article provided: “To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice.”

More than 560 years after the Magna Carta was written, a virtually uneducated Virginia planter…