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Quarters" his partner Mr. H. being a devoted friend
of A. & his brother Benjamin & Peter Deckerd
of the same town, men of talent and
of influence, taking a decided & active part in
his favor. He admitted, that he was not impartial,
had some feeling about it, & was there
fore set aside - Possibly he might not have
formed a decided opinion - as to the grade of
the Homicide. Possibly he had not expressed
an opinion - He had a Sensible wife, whose
judgment & feelings were right - and he
might not have been willing to oppose either
her, or his brothers by expressing an opinion
He has generally been considered an honest worthy
man.
The following is a List of the Jury.
William Knight, 1 - William O'Rear 2, William
Starnes 3. Durham Kelly, 4 - Willis Kelly (his
son) 5. John C. Wells 6 - Rankin 7 -
Nathaniel Hunt 8 - Hezekiah Faris 9(commonly
called Black Kye) - James Harris 10. William
Crownover 11.
I have no doubt, but what every man on the
Jury (except Rankin, who was a very ignorant
man, & possibly had no opinion) went on
with a determination to acquit the Prisoner
right or wrong. Willis Kelly, swore that he
had not formed or expressed an opinion
when in fact and in truth he had not only
publicly expressed an opinion a short time before the
trial, in favor of the Prisoner, but actually
wanted to fight another man, for expressing a
different opinion _ This information was communicated
to me, immediately afterwards
by William McClellan, an honest worthy
man & a cousin of Kelly's, & now a Citizen