Alexandria
There are a few different power relations that I noticed through out the text. The first of which is the idea that knowledge is power. The investigator possesses knowledge of the evidence and the trial that the accused does not have and therefore has power over the accused. Even if the investigator's evidence is minimal or false, he will make it appear as if there is enough evidence to prosecute the accused. He is allowed to bend the truth and torture the accused because the goal of the investigation is to get a confession, even if he did not commit the crime. If the accused man confesses (and it has to appear spontaneous), the work of the investigators is shortened. According to Foucault "through the confession the accused himself took part in the ritual of producing penal truth" (38).
The person accused of the crime is supposed to be punished but he is also supposed to condemn himself according to Foucault, and play the role of "the living truth" (38). He embodies the living truth because if he confesses, then he is "obviously" guilty. The accused when tortured to get the truth out of him plays another role as well called the "voluntary partner" (39). If the accused is tortured and does not confess, there is a chance that the magister has to drop the charges, which would be bad for the case.
When paraded through the streets in front of spectators, the condemned is expected to truthfully acknowledge his crime. The spectators are expected to witness the sufferings of the condemned while jeering at him.But they were also expected to witness the executions and see that this could happen to them if they do not obey the law. An act of resistance occurred when the rioters in a child abduction case wanted to prevent the execution of three rioters. There were too many people and too few exits of the cemetery in which the men were to be hanged, so the executioner became frightened and decided to cut down one of the men (60).
These deaths are memorialized by the written truth of the execution (the procedure to the body, gesture and speech of the criminal) (66). Accounts of the crimes and the infamous lives of the accused were also published as propaganda. This caused the condemned man to be transformed from a criminal into a hero or even a saint if he asked God and man for forgiveness of his actions.
There are a few different power relations that I noticed through out the text. The first of which is the idea that knowledge is power. The investigator possesses knowledge of the evidence and the trial that the accused does not have and therefore has power over the accused. Even if the investigator's evidence is minimal or false, he will make it appear as if there is enough evidence to prosecute the accused. He is allowed to bend the truth and torture the accused because the goal of the investigation is to get a confession, even if he did not commit the crime. If the accused man confesses (and it has to appear spontaneous), the work of the investigators is shortened. According to Foucault "through the confession the accused himself took part in the ritual of producing penal truth" (38).
The person accused of the crime is supposed to be punished but he is also supposed to condemn himself according to Foucault, and play the role of "the living truth" (38). He embodies the living truth because if he confesses, then he is "obviously" guilty. The accused when tortured to get the truth out of him plays another role as well called the "voluntary partner" (39). If the accused is tortured and does not confess, there is a chance that the magister has to drop the charges, which would be bad for the case.
When paraded through the streets in front of spectators, the condemned is expected to truthfully acknowledge his crime. The spectators are expected to witness the sufferings of the condemned while jeering at him.But they were also expected to witness the executions and see that this could happen to them if they do not obey the law. An act of resistance occurred when the rioters in a child abduction case wanted to prevent the execution of three rioters. There were too many people and too few exits of the cemetery in which the men were to be hanged, so the executioner became frightened and decided to cut down one of the men (60).
These deaths are memorialized by the written truth of the execution (the procedure to the body, gesture and speech of the criminal) (66). Accounts of the crimes and the infamous lives of the accused were also published as propaganda. This caused the condemned man to be transformed from a criminal into a hero or even a saint if he asked God and man for forgiveness of his actions.