Petition from F. L. B. Valliant to Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames; January 1, 1876

Documents
Petition from F. L. B. Valliant to Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames; January 1, 1876

Document Network
Document Metadata

Each transcribed document contains links that connect it to other documents on the same topic in the collection.

People

Ames, Adelbert, 1835-1933 Archer, Steven Barrett, Catherine Barrett, Henry Valliant, F.Valliant, L. B.

Events

Crime Crime--Assault and battery Crime--Larceny Crime--Robbery Criminal Procedure Criminal Procedure--Convicted Criminal Procedure--Indictments Criminal Procedure--Pardon Criminal Procedure--Pleading Criminal Procedure--Trial Legislation. Mississippi

Organizations

Courts and Judicial Systems Courts and Judicial Systems--Criminal Juries Courts and Judicial Systems--Grand jury Mississippi--Legislature Mississippi--State Penitentiary (Jackson)

Occupations

Clergy Judges Judges. Justices of the Peace Lawyers Merchants

Social Identifiers

Christians Christians--Presbyterians Imprisoned People's Families Imprisoned people

Page 1

[note] 1876 [/note]

To His Excellency Gov. Ames
Governor of The State of Miss.

Sir:

This will be handed you by Catherine Barrett wife of Henry Barrett who visits you for the purpose of ~~[?]~~ ^asking^ a pardon for her husband. The reason for the pardon is set forth in a petition signed by the best citizens of our county irrespective of party. We have not thought it necessary to present a long list of petitioners; no one has refused, as far as we know to sign the petition, and we doubt not that we could obtain the signature of all persons in this county who are acquainted with the circumstances. We have obtained the signatures of several of the jurors who tried the case and who recommended the party to the mercy of the court—we could obtain the names of all the jurors to the petition if we had the ~~more~~ time to send around to the different parts of the county where they reside. One member of the Grand jury who found the bill told the ~~righter th~~ writer that he thought that a majority of that body would sign the petion if it could be presented to them—Henry Barrett is an industrious and hard working man with a wife and three children dependant on him and their own labor—

Page 2

for a support—He is high tempered, but not vicious and the offence was committed in day light in front of the Court House as stated in the petition. This is a peculiar case and no conviction could ever have been obtained in such a case except for a defect in our statute—
By the Act of the Legislature of this State approved Oct 30^th 1866 Sec. 7. Page 3. justices of the peace in this State have jurisdiction of cases of Pitit larceny in which the amt. alleged to have been stolen does not exceed the value of ten dollars—Under this Statute Henry Barrett was tried by a competent justice of the Peace ~~and~~ for the larceny of the same goods that he has ^now^ been convicted of ~~taking~~ ^robbing^, at the same time that he was tried for the assault and battery; thus he was convicted and suffered the penalty both for the assault and battery of and for the larceny of these same goods, that he is now convicted of taking by robery We interposed the plea that he had once been convicted of the larceny of these same goods and read the law to the court, that when a party has suffered the punishment for larceny he can not again be convicted for the robbery of the same goods, but the Court decided that while this was the law, and that the justice of the Peace had jurisdiction of the larceny in such a case he, had no

jurisdiction of Robery and that we could not therefore plead the same in barr.

Thus by a blunder of the legislature our Client has been compell to suffer twice for the same offence. Again by the law of this State if a man steal ten dollars a magistrate may inflict a small fine, say one dollar and thus the party would make nine dollars clear, but if he receives one dollars worth of stolen goods he must go to the Penitentiary—Your Excellency will find among the signatures ^to the petition^ the names of all the lawyers who are at present in town, together with all our merchants and business men. The Rev. Mr. Steven Archer our Prisbyterian ^minister^ whose name appears also on the list heard the trial, and says that had he been on the jury he would not have found Henry Barrett guilty notwithstanding the ~~tech~~ tecnicality of the law—

Barretts crop is now suffering for want of his attention, and for this reason we have not waited to get more signatures among a population so widely scattered.

Hoping that your Excellency will at once grant the pardon prayed for we remain

Respectfully
Your obt Svts

F. & L. B. Valliant
atty. for
Henry Barrett