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Cruentation, a Surefire Way to Identify a Murderer - Neatorama

In the modern world, it's rare that a victim would attend a murder trial. In fact, it's unheard of. But a medieval trial procedure called cruentation, also called bier-right or the ordeal of the bier, required that the remains of the victim be brought into the proceedings. This is the belief that a corpse would begin to bleed when it is touched by, or even just brought near, the person who killed them. A corpse would be wheeled into the courtroom, usually in its coffin, and the accused would be