1954 SHERIFFS. [ART. 87

lands or tenements lie, to execute a deed of conveyance to the purchaser

or his legal representative. This section shall apply to all officers
making sales under executions.

Venditioni Exponas.

1904, art. 87, sec. 27. 1888, art. 87. sec. 26. 1860, art. 88, sec. 30. 1829, ch. 158, sec. 1.
27. If any sheriff shall have taken property in execution and shall
fail to make sale thereof for five years, or shall be in insolvent circum-
stances, the person for whose use such execution was issued may, in

either case, have a writ of venditioni exponas issued to the sheriff for
the time being.

A sheriff who makes a levy has power to sell after the return of the fi. fa.,
and after his term has expired. Busey v. Tuck, 47 Md. 174.

Nature of a vendi. Where a fi. fa. has been issued and a vendi. follows, but
between the fi. fa. and the vendi. the debtor becomes an insolvent, the sher-
iffs sale under the vendi. is void. Manahan v. Sammou, 3 Md. 471.

Where a judgment in rem is described in the execution and in the vendi.
which follows it as in personam, the execution is void and not voidable only.
Where, however, the only defect is that the return of the vendi., while show-
ing the "property on hand and unsold," did not show what property was
referred to and why it was unsold, the vendi. will be upheld. Prior to this
section, the vendi. always Issued to the sheriff to whom the fl. fa. had issued.
Deakins v. Rex, 60 Md. 598; Busey v. Tuck, 47 Md. 174.

See art. 20, sec. 13.

Execution of Death Penalty.

Ibid. sec. 28. 1888, art. 87, sec. 27. 1860, art. 88, sec. 31. 1795, ch. 82,
sec. 1. 1882, ch. 403.

28. The sheriff shall execute the sentence of death pronounced
against any criminal by the judgment of any court of this State when-
ever he is authorized to do so by the warrant of the governor, and it
shall be the duty of the sheriff to execute every such sentence of death
in as private a manner as possible and to exclude from the view thereof
all persons except his deputies, the spiritual advisers of the criminal,
the legal counsel who defended him, his or her relatives (not more
remote than the second degree of either affinity or consanguinity), and
such other persons, not exceeding twenty, as he may appoint to witness
the same; and the said sheriff shall notify the physician of the jail, if
there be any, or if there be no such physician or he refuse to attend the
execution, then said sheriff shall procure some other physician of good
standing to attend and furnish him a certificate that the execution was
properly performed, and for said service said physician shall receive
the sum of fifteen dollars, to be paid by the county or Baltimore city
where said execution takes place (as the case may be); and said
sheriff shall return the execution of the sentence under said warrant,
verified by his oath, to the court which sentenced said prisoner, together
with said physician's certificate, which, with said return shall be
recorded by the clerk among the proceedings in the case.