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Vicksburg Miss.
Aug. 16^th,, 1871.

To his Excellency
Gov—Alcorn

Sir

I herewith present to you the substance of the testimony adduced on the trial of the case of the State vs Nathan Gibson.

I do so for the purpose of recommending to your Excellency the propriety of commuting the death penalty in his case to imprisonment in the Penitentiary.

The testimony sustains the verdict but I cannot regard the case so flarant as to warrant capital punishment.

The parties were friends—living together and I cannot believe the Deft. intended with malice afore-thought to kill & murder Newell, yet he said he did, but he was laboring under great excitement on account of his wife being whiped and did not really compre-hend what he done or said.