Bonny and Read successfully 'pleaded the belly,' claiming pregnancy, which led the Jamaican court to stay their execution.
The day after their conviction, on November 17, 1720, Anne Bonny and Mary Read were returned before the Jamaican court to receive formal sentencing. In a move that would become central to their legend, both women invoked an established legal protection known as 'pleading the belly'—a claim of pregnancy that, under English common law tradition extended to the colonies, obligated the court to delay execution until after childbirth, since it was considered unlawful to execute an unborn child along with its mother.
A panel of matrons was typically summoned to examine the women and confirm the claim before the court would grant a stay. Historical records indicate that both Bonny and Read successfully convinced the court of their pregnancies, and their executions were postponed indefinitely as a result.
This moment is one of the most pivotal in Bonny's story, as it directly explains why she—unlike Rackham and most of the male crew, who were hanged shortly after their convictions—was never executed. The successful plea illustrates how even within a deeply patriarchal and punitive legal system, women pirates could exploit gendered legal protections to escape capital punishment. It also fuels much of the later mystery and speculation surrounding Bonny's ultimate fate, since surviving records do not clearly document what happened to her immediately afterward.