Charles A. Hardin and John C. Kyle to Thomas E. Bramlette

KYR-0001-004-2084.xml

Accession Number

KYR-0001-004-2084

Document Genre

Petition

Repository

Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives

Collection

Office of the Governor, Thomas E. Bramlette: Governor's official correspondence file, petitions for pardons, remissions, and respites 1863-1867

Item Location

BR14-283 to BR14-286

Place of Creation

Mercer County, Kentucky

Date of Creation

8 July 1865

Dates Mentioned

1862-01

1862-04

1864-08

1865-07-08

To his Excellency
Thomas E Bramlette
Governor of Kentucky

Your petitioners, Charles A Hardin and John P. Kyle State that in January 1862, Edward D Scott at his home in Mercer County Kentucky, Shot within the space of a minute Four of his step Children two of whom were killed They State that at the April term 1862 of the Mercer Circuit Court two indictments for murder were found against the said Scott by the Grand Jury, one for killing James Tilford and the other of Killing Eddie Tilford, both his step children, the Grand Jury not finding any indictment for the wounding of the other two children. They state that on the indictment for killing James Tilford the said Edward D Scott had three seperate trials, the first trial taking place not long after the homicide

a storm of popular excitement and passion, when the said Scott was unable to obtain some of the best and strongest evidence which existed to establish his defense which was the plea of insanity — At said trial the said Scott was found guilty of murder by the Jury, from which verdict he appealed to the supreme Court of the state, by which
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tribunal he ws given a new trial — The opinion of the Court in the case is published in the fourth volume of Metcalfe Ky reports, and although at said trial the evidence in behalf of the acused was not half so strong as conclusive as it was at the last trial, yet the Court in their decission stated that the evidence conduced to establish the plea of insanity — The second trial of the case at which it was almost impossible to obtain a Jury in Mercer County, (nearly every one having formed an opinion one way or the other) resulted in a hung Jury, no verdict being found — After the second trial the case was by the change of venue moved to the adjacent County of Boyle, where all the parties in any wise connected with the trial were well known, and where at the Danville Colledge several years before the accused had been a student for the Presbyterian ministry — At the August term, 1864 of the Boyle Circuit Court the said Scott had his third trial and so voluminous and extensive was the evidence that the trial continued nearly a week — The prosecution was ably conducted with much feeling and ambition, the attorney for the Commonwealth being assisted by able employed Counsel, and every effort was made to procure the con-
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viction of the accused, all the evidence which could tend to secure that end being assiduously hunted up and introduced — The case was tried before as intelligently a Jury as can be found in the state of Kentucky, men of education and high character, and after the case had been submitted to them they retired for only a very short time and brought in a verdict of acquittal on the ground of insanity, and the Circuit Judge as the law required, made an order sending the said Scott to the lunatic Asylum at Hopkinsville Ky where he has been confined ever since and is so confined at the present time —

Never probably in the history of criminal Jurisprudence was there ever a more conclusive and undoubted case of insanity made out and sustained by the proof than in the case of the said E D Scott at his last trial, and never was there a more triumphant acquittal based upon such unquestionable proof that no impartial man could resist it. His insanity at times was testified to by almost every man who had had any acquaintence with him since he came to Ky from Arkansas which was some six or seven years before the unfortunate occurrence transpired — his insanity was testified to and proven by several ministers of the Gospel
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who knew him, and was proven by several and learned and distinguished physicians — The testimony of several of the Chief witnesses introduced by the Commonwealth, though intended to prove his guilt, was nevertheless conclusive as to his insanity and contributed very much to the verdict of acquittal — Such is the statement of the jury by whom he was tried — Even the wife of the accused and the mother of the Children he killed was forced by a sense of Justice to swear to his insanity and her testimony was fortified by a number of witnesses who swore that they had heard her say at different times before the killing of the Children that the accused her husband, was insane at times. One withness a lady swore that on the evening before the fatal Shooting occurred she heard the accused's wife, who was the mother of the Children, say that the said Scott, her husband, was laboring under one of his spells of insanity — The proof was that for almost a month prior to the bloody tragedy the accused had continually acted as one insane man. It was proven by indisputable evidence that ever since the accused has been a resident of Kentucky he has had periodical spells of insanity — He came to Kentucky from Arkansas and entered
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the College at Danville for the purpose of devoting himself to the ministry — his disposition, as proven is remarkably amiable and his Character unusually exemplary and Christian — marked as such by all who knew him His family is as respectable and stands as high as any in the State of Arkansas; but owing to the state of war existing in the Country and the consequent stoppage of intercourse and mail facilities between the two sections at war, it was impossible during the long period of the accused's confinement in Jail awaiting his several trials, to communicate with his parents and relations. Since his acquittal however it has been satifactorally ascertained that any quantity of evidence can be procured in Arkansas to prove that he was insane at times in Arkansas before he came to Kentucky and was so regarded and spoken of —

No motive whatever existed for the act he committed and none was proven, on the other hand it was proven by all who knew ~~him~~ any thing about it, including all members of the family, among whom were the surviving brothers and sisters of those he killed that the Children he killed as well as those he attempted to kill were the objects of his tenderest care and affection — He was devoted to their interest and welfare — Your Excellency is refer-
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red to Gen John M Harlan and Hon E. L. Vanwinkle secretary of state for Confirmation of the statements in this petition, the latter of whom is especially familiar with all the facts of the case. We have not aimed to give even an outline of the vast bulk of evidence which establishes the insanity of E D Scott — It would be useless and would require too much time in reading on an application like this.

Your petitioners would state that there now exists in the Mercer Circuit Court an indictment against the said E D Scott for killing Eddie Tilford at the same time he killed James Tilford for which he has been tried and acquitted as before stated. They were both killed at the same time, and under the influence of the same eclipse of mind and uncontrollable fit of insanity — After his acquittal [ ] under the indictment precisely similar to the act charged in the indictment now pending in the Mercer Circuit Court, and committed at the same time, by virtue of which acquittal he has been consigned to a lunatic asylum as a madman, it would seem that Justice, humanity and the law would require that He be pardoned as to the second indictment for killing Eddie Tilford, and your petitioners would
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respectfully and urgently ask your Excellency to pardon Edward D Scott of the existing charge of murder against him, and let the same be struck from the records of the Court

At two terms of the Mercer Circuit Court applications have already been made by his Counsel for a trial but the Court ruled that he was by order of ~~the~~ a Court of Competent Jurisdiction an inmate of the lunatic asylum and of course could not be put upon his trial The burthen of proof was on the defense to prove his insanity a large amount of Corobberative testimony would be lost to him unless he is speedily restored to reason and to liberty, by the death and removal of important witnesses and a palpable injustice will result to him, we see no way to exonerate him from a situation so unfair to him and so unfortunate in its probable results except by the exercise of executive clemency, and we therefore earnestly solicitly his pardon

July 8^th 1865
Charles A. Hardin
John C. Kyle

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