| Summary: | The counsel for the defendant, a slave, appealed against the death sentence pronounced against him for assaulting a white man. The appeal urged that the judgment be reversed on the grounds of irregularity in the appointment of an attorney for the defendant and that the defendant's intent had not been charged. The Supreme Court cited the Act of 1806 which pronounced the death penalty against any slave who shall have grievously and wilfully wounded or mutilated any white person thus rendering the judgment lawful. Additionally, in accordance with the Act of 1846, trials involving slaves did not require an observance of the technical rules which regulate criminal proceedings in the higher courts and therefore any errors in form did not justify the overruling of a slave conviction. The judgment was affirmed.
|
|---|