Page "Intolerable Acts" Paragraph 11

The Administration of Justice Act allowed the governor to move trials of accused royal officials to another colony or even to Great Britain if he believed the official could not get a fair trial in Massachusetts.

Although the act stipulated that witnesses would be paid for their travel expenses, in practice few colonists could afford to leave their work and cross the ocean to testify in a trial.

George Washington called this the " Murder Act " because he believed that it allowed British officials to harass Americans and then escape justice.

Many colonists believed the act was unnecessary because British soldiers had been given a fair trial following the Boston Massacre in 1770.