Definition
Ute de (also rendered as *uter de* or drawn from the Latin *utlagatus de*) is an archaic English legal term referring to the act of breaking out of prison or escaping from lawful custody. The term derives from the statutory framework established by 1 Edw. II, St. 2 (found in the Revised Statutes at 23 Edw. I), an English statute that remained unrepealed for centuries and that drew a critical distinction based on the character of the prisoner escaping:
1. **Escape by a felon**: Breaking prison while held on a felony charge or conviction constitutes felony.
2. **Escape by a misdemeanant**: Breaking prison while held only on a misdemeanor charge or conviction constitutes misdemeanor only.
The term thus functions less as a standalone offense name and more as a shorthand label for the statutory rule governing prison breach, calibrating the severity of the escape offense to the underlying offense for which the prisoner was confined.
Common Confusion
Ute de should not be confused with the modern offense of "escape from custody," which in contemporary American and English law is typically a standalone statutory crime with its own grading scheme, often irrespective of the underlying offense. The historical rule encoded in this statute — that the escape offense mirrors the character of the original detention — has not survived uniformly into modern codes. Researchers encountering "prison breach" or "breaking prison" in historical sources should check whether the authority is applying this statute's mirroring principle or a later independent standard.
Why It Matters in Research
This term matters primarily to researchers working in historical English criminal law, particularly sources predating the consolidation of English criminal statutes in the nineteenth century. Several navigational points:
**Corpus traps**: The term appears in highly abbreviated or Latinized form in early treatises and Year Books. Hale's *Pleas of the Crown* (1 Hale, P.C. 612) is the standard authority cited alongside this statute, and researchers should consult Hale directly for the fuller doctrinal context. Black's 2nd Edition cites Hale as the interpretive source, so the dictionary entry alone is skeletal.
**The mirroring principle**: The doctrinal core — that the grade of the escape offense tracks the grade of the underlying detention — is the historically significant rule. This principle influenced how American jurisdictions initially structured escape offenses in their early criminal codes, even after the English statute itself ceased to apply directly.
**Still-unrepealed status**: Black's flags this statute as "still unrepealed" as of its publication. Researchers should be cautious about assuming continuity; the practical force of this statute in English law was substantially overtaken by later legislation, and its unrepealed status is a formal technicality rather than a signal of ongoing doctrinal vitality.
**American reception**: American criminal law largely absorbed the mirroring principle through common law reception statutes in the colonial and early republic periods, but most states eventually replaced it with independent escape statutes. Researchers tracing the lineage of American escape law should use this term as a historical anchor, not a live authority.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) provides the only dictionary entry in the Law Mind corpus for this term. The entry is characteristically compressed: it identifies the statute, states the felony/misdemeanor distinction, and cites Hale. It offers no further elaboration of what constitutes "breaking prison" under the statute, what mental state is required, or how courts resolved edge cases (e.g., prisoners held on multiple charges of mixed character).
Hale's *Pleas of the Crown* at the cited page is the essential supplement. Hale treats prison breach as a common law offense with statutory overlay, and his analysis addresses questions the dictionary entry leaves open, including whether consent of a jailer defeats the offense and how the rule applies to prisoners held in civil as well as criminal custody.
No other historical legal dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus — including Bouvier or Tomlin — appear to carry a distinct entry for this precise term, making Black's 2nd the sole dictionary-level source and Hale the necessary primary treatise reference.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia: *Standards of Review on Appeal (De Novo, Abuse of Discretion, Plain Error)* — relevant if researching how appellate courts historically reviewed escape-related convictions, though the connection is indirect.