1

To his Excellency the Governor of the State of Tennessee

We your petitioners represent to your Excellency that at a late term
of the Circuit Court of Davidson County, James H Hindman was found
guilty of manslaughter for the killing of William L Simmons, (a
Soldier) in the town of Nashville, and that he has been branded
in the hand and is also sentencd to imprisonment for the term
of six months from the 31^st day of May. We hereby request of
your Excellency that the said James H Hindman may be pardond
from the imprisonment- To which he is sentenc'd - we are inducd
to solicit this pardon for the following reasons- The defd^t kill'd the
dec^d at a time when he was making a violent attack upon him
with a loaded whip, and that the mortal Blow was not given untill
he had retreated a Considerable distance, and had repeatedly -
warnd the dec^d to desist, and had repeatedly calld upon the
byestanders to take away the dec^d and not untill he had rec^d
repeated blows upon diferent parts of his body- and altho from the
verdict of the Jury, he was not excusable altogether, as the[y] believe
there was no absolute necessaty to kill him to save the life of the
defd^t- yet we think as he has sufferd the penalty for
manslaughter- the case is such a one that it would be too rigorous
to attach additional inprisonment of six months: we further
represent that it was with reluctance some of the Jurors -