GoL Condemns Sassywood, or Trial by Ordeal

I guess it was illegal already, but it must be pretty common still if this week the government is publicly condemning the practice of sassywood, or trial by ordeal:

...a practice in which guilt is determined by exposing the suspects to acute pain and interpreting their reaction. If there is no injury, or if the wounds heal quickly, the accused is deemed innocent.

I guess the name comes from the practice of making a poisonous tea from the bark of the sassywood tree, and forcing alleged wrongdoers to drink it. They used to do this kind of thing in the early American colonies, too, during the Salem witch trial era.