Godfathers.
Jurymen, who are the sponsors of the criminal.
“In christening time thou shalt have two godfathers. Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten more to bring thee to the gallows, not to the font.”—Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, iv. 1.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.