Concord Nov 5th 1844Your Honorable Excellency John M. Morehead Dear Sir, On Thursday the 4th day of Nov just there was a Jury of inquest held over the boday of Franklin Harrison the verdict of which, was that Harrison had come to his deth by a blow on the head with a stick and that a man by the name of John P.Crayton was the perpetuator of the deed. Crayton avoids the Law and it appears will be vary dicfficult to arrest he is stant built nere six feet high has red hair fair complection wore whiskers when he left - -- Spoke as though he was somewhat tongue tied dresses tolerable well had on when left a cloth coat and white furr hat he has been raised a Gold miner has laboured at the Reed mine in this county since a youth he is about thirty or thirty five years of age. Yours Respectfully N. White, Shff. N B, the parties were all of Cabarrus County C. N. W.

The undersigned citizens of Stanly County respectfully represents to your excellency that at the August term 1845 of Cabarrus County Superior Court John P. Crayton was convicted of the murder of one Franklin F. Harrison and is now in confinement awaiting the execution of the sentence of the law for that offence if is not the purpose of your petitioners to state the testimony submitted to the Jury on which the unhappy prisoner was convicted the facts of the case made for the Supreme Court by the Judge who presided at the trial and to which your petitioners would beg leave to refer your excellency the testimony as your petitioners believe establishes clearly that although the deceased reserved his death at the hands of the prisoner the act was committed under a sudden excitement of passion in which there was no element of malice that the fatal blow was not itself inflicted with a weapon the character of which was mistaken by the prisoner and that its effect was wholly undersigned and unexpected by him the manifestation of astonishment at the prostration of the deceased the immediate return of kindness the assistance offered to him and the sol solicitude for his recovery as your petitioners believe are wholly inconsistent with any idea of willfulness or premeditation in the offence or of deliberate malice towards the deceased . . . Your petitioners so not arraigh the findings of the Jury or the charge of the Court under which their verdict was under the legal inference of malice is not as they believe inconsistent with the view of the testimony which they have taken and the conviction tho in conformity to the strict rule of law which implies malice from the nature of the transaction does not accord with the degree of its guilt in morals. Your petitioners therefore most respectfully represents to your excelency that this is a proper case for the interposition of the execution of clemency. A. J. Morgan C. Horne W. Russell F. Lacke Wm. Simpson Hough Parker _ Hunnycutt John Tucker Henry Davis J. P. E. Almond James Gou__ Wm. M. Austin H. Sides D. Hearne H. T. Mann Henry Marshall Jr. Miller W. Easley Banner Peeples Henry Edes S. A. Mann John Simpson James Parker Alexander T. G. Birmingham Sr. Daniel Pliler Thomas Marks W. ____ Russell Eben Hearne M. _Waddill James Hathcock Green W. Burkhead Jones Green Monroe Creps Bailey Smith W Hilliad Henry H. Milton John S. Kirk. J. P. Bumell B. A. Handler John Kimer James R. Hamilton Wm Howell James D. Coleman Jno. Stancel Wm Foust Wm. Blalock Hny B. Carter Charles Bird Rowland Fo____ Daniel Moose ___ Little Yo___ Kine John J. Love A. N. Hunneycutt M. Furr J. P. Jonah Love James W. Love Wm. A. Cagle Thomas Mann Samson Watts George Honeycutt Ransom Huneycutt M. R. Eudy J. T. Stone Franklin Moss H. R. Pritchard Z. B. Little J. Burris B. L. Green William Louder S. F__a_ly Edmd Plilade A. C. Freeman Noah J. Russell Stanley A. Moss G. _G. Shankle? George M. Sides Shepherd Lee Noah A. Moss Wm. A. Mann Wm. H Steel Jere Adderton George Whitley Edmunde B. Nash David Austin Simpson Hatley E. W. Lilley A. Lutzman Jacob Austin William Crowell James Palmer Mathias Smith D. F. Crowell Wm. Parker Sr. Daniel Louder James Parker Saml. S. Stone Lafayete Greene Alex Brooks B. G. Marshall Thomas B. Sides? Wiley Safley Thomas Thompson Isaac Simpson Thomas Mauldin Geo. F. Smith A. J. Shankle G. Redwine J. P. Little Michael Garman John Drake David Sossamon Solomon Hartsell James Harkey Samuel Hinson Casper Rosenkranz Johanne Rosenkranz Conrad Rosenkranz G. Teeter William B. Whitley J. W. Honeycutt Wesley Honeycutt

BACK

Back to the Index