The first Valerian law was enacted by Publius Valerius Publicola in 509 BC, a few years after the founding of republican Rome.
[1] Thus the consuls no longer had the power of pronouncing sentence in capital cases against a Roman citizen, without the consent of the people.
Furthermore, Livy notes that, should a magistrate disregard the Valerian law, his only reproof was that his act be deemed unlawful and wicked.
The Porcian Laws do not seem to have fully protected citizen soldiers from centurions' vine staffs, as Tacitus mentions severe beatings continuing to be inflicted under the principate.
This sanctity of a citizen's person was highly esteemed by the Romans, and so any violation of the Valerian and Porcian laws was deemed to be almost a sacrilege.
Verres, who as the governor of Sicily (73 - 70 BC) had a number of Roman citizens cruelly killed, was eventually tried before the senators in Rome, on charges of extortion (Cic.