[2]Before this enactment, defendants who pleaded "not guilty" to a charge of felony were formally obliged to choose their mode of trial, in a standard exchange with the clerk of the court: "How wilt thou be tried?"

Historically, prisoners who refused to plead to an indictment were tortured, in a process known as peine fort et dure, until they died or entered a plea.

The Criminal Law Act 1827 reversed the position;[5] "if any Person being arraigned or charged with any Indictment or Information ... shall stand mute of Malice, or not answer directly to the Indictment or Information, in every Case it shall be lawful for the Court, if it shall so think fit, to order the proper Officer to enter a Plea of 'Not guilty' on behalf of such Person".

Part VI stated - "And be it enacted, That benefit of clergy, with respect to persons convicted of felony, shall be abolished".

Benefit of clergy was a traditional practice which enabled many convicted felons to avoid the death penalty by reading (or memorizing) a passage from the Bible; originally, this was held to prove that the defendant was in Holy Orders, and therefore subject to the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts (which did not have the power to impose capital sentences) rather than the civil courts, but, by the eighteenth century, this was disregarded[4]: 514  – female defendants, for whom being in Holy Orders was impossible, were entitled to claim benefit of clergy by the Benefit of Clergy, etc.

However, a statute of Edward VI also enabled peers to claim a similar benefit, and it was uncertain that this form of proceeding was covered by the words of the Criminal Law Act 1827.

[7] Part VII of the Criminal Law Act 1827 preserved the relief from the death penalty that was formerly available to felons entitled to claim benefit of clergy.

[2] Part XI provided for increased penalties (imprisonment for up to seven years or transportation for life) for repeat offenders, and made it a felony for any court official to produce fraudulent evidence of previous convictions.