§11. A rate of interest beyond that which is established by law, is _usury_. Not only can no more be collected on any contract or obligation than the legal rate, but in most of the states there is some forfeiture for taking usurious interest. In a few, the obligation is void, and the payment of no part of the debt can be enforced by law; in others, twice or thrice the excess above the lawful interest is forfeited; and in some, only the excess paid can be recovered.
§1. The statutes of each state define the crimes of which its laws take cognizance. The definitions given in this chapter, agree substantially, it is presumed, with those of similar crimes in every state in the union. The statutes also prescribe the penalties, which are not precisely the same in all the states. Nor is there in any state an equal measure of punishment inflicted in all cases for the same offense. The laws usually declare the longest and the shortest terms of imprisonment, and the highest and lowest fines, leaving the exact measure of punishment, except for crimes punishable by death, to the discretion of the judges, to be fixed according to the aggravation of the offense.
§2. The laws of the several states differ in respect to the number of crimes made punishable by death. In some states the penalty of death is annexed to the crime of murder only. Treason is punishable by death; but as this offense is defined and made punishable by the laws of the United States, not all the states take cognizance of it. If committed in such states, it is tried in the courts of the United States. In New York, murder, treason, and arson in the first degree, are punishable by death. Few states make more than these crimes thus punishable. In two or three states, the penalty of death has been abolished, and imprisonment for life substituted.
§3. Crimes punishable by death, are called _capital_ crimes, and their punishment is called _capital_ punishment. The word capital is from the Latin _caput_, which means head; and so has come to signify the highest or principal. Hence, probably, the application of the word capital to the principal crimes receiving the highest punishment, which was formerly practiced extensively in other countries by beheading or _decapitating_ the criminals.
