| Summary: | Kimbrough was indicted for the lynching of one John Davis, and pleaded not guilty. Kimbrough's counsel objected to two witnesses on the basis that they were the son and son-in-law of Davis. It was proved that in an earlier court case in which Kimbrough was the plaintiff and Davis the defendant, certain slaves had been settled on Kimbrough for life with a remainder after his death to Davis's children. A witness for the prosecution stated that he met a black man at about the time the homicide was alleged to have been committed. Parol evidence of the content of certain papers held by Kimbrough was produced in evidence in the absence of the papers themselves, to which Kimbrough objected on the grounds that he was not obliged to produce evidence against himself, and as the parol report was not the best extant evidence of the papers' contents it should not be permitted. Kimbrough was found guilty and sentenced to death, and appealed. The Supreme Court ruled that the court was entitled to treat a defendant's putting primary evidence beyond the court's reach as creating circumstances identical to those that would be created if the primary evidence had been destroyed. Verdict affirmed.
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