Life and bloody career of the executed criminal, James Copeland, the great Southern land piratePitts, J. R. S. (James Robert Soda)
History
Life and bloody career of the executed criminal, James Copeland, the great Southern land pirate
Pitts, J. R. S. (James Robert Soda)
Copeland, James, 1823-1857; Criminals -- Gulf States -- Biography
This day comes George Wood, the District Attorney, who prosecutes for
the State of Mississippi, and the prisoner is brought to the bar, in
custody of the Sheriff, whereupon comes a jury of good and lawful men,
to wit: Porter J. Myers, Malachi Odom, Sr., J. M. Bradley, Jr., Darling
Lott, Malcolm McCallum, Angus McSwain, Q. A. Bradley, J. M. Bradley,
Sr., Wm. H. Nicols, W. C. Griffin, D. S. Sapp and James Edwards, who
are regularly summoned, elected and sworn, and well and truly to try
an issue joined, ore tenus, whether or not the prisoner be of sound
mind, and whether he possesses sufficient intellect to comprehend
the cause of the proceedings on the trial, so as to be able to make
a proper defense; or whether the appearance of insanity, if any such
be proven, is feigned or not; and the evidence having been submitted
to them in the presence of the prisoner, they retired to consider of
their verdict, and in his presence returned the following, to-wit:
“We, the jury, on our oaths, find the prisoner sane; that he possesses
sufficient intellect to comprehend the cause of the prosecution on
the trial, so as to be able to make a proper defense, and that the
appearance of insanity which he has exhibited, is feigned.”
And thereupon the prisoner is arraigned on the charge of murder,
as preferred by the bill of indictment; and upon said arraignment,
says that he is not guilty in manner and form as therein and thereby
charged, and for the truth of said plea he puts himself upon the
country; and the District Attorney in behalf of the State of
Mississippi doeth the like.
And thereon come the following good and lawful men of Perry county,
to-wit: Zebulon Hollingsworth, J. J. Bradley, John A. Carnes, Francis
A. Allen, Wm. W. Dunn, Adam Laird, who were regularly summoned on the
special venue returned in this case, and who in the presence of the
prisoner are regularly tried and chosen between the prisoner and the
State; and the special venue being exhausted the Sheriff proceeded
to call the regular jurors in attendance at this term, and Daniel S.
Sapp, Seaborne Hollingsworth and Francis Martin were in the presence
of the prisoner tried, and chosen between the State and the prisoner;
and the regular jury being exhausted, the Sheriff is directed to summon
thirteen bystanders as jurors, and from the number so summoned as
last aforesaid, Milton J. Albritton was in presence of the prisoner
duly tried and chosen between the State and the prisoner; and the
said thirteen persons so last summoned being exhausted, it is ordered
that a venue issue, commanding the Sheriff to summon twenty good and
lawful men of Perry county, to be and appear before the court to-morrow
morning at 8 o’clock, A. M., to serve as jurors in the trial of the
issue aforesaid, and the prisoner is remanded to jail, and John W.
Carter is sworn as bailiff to take charge of the jury.
WEDNESDAY MORNING, 8 O’CLOCK, SEPTEMBER 16, 1857.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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