Joseph Ricketts, Affidavit

KYR-0001-020-0115.xml

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Accession Number

KYR-0001-020-0115

Document Genre

Legal/Financial

Repository

Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives

Collection

Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Petitions for Pardons and Remissions, 1859-1862

Item Location

MG17-23 to MG17-24

Place of Creation

Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky

Date of Creation

8 November 1860

Dates Mentioned

1860-11-08

Joseph Ricketts, Affidavit, 8 November 1860, Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Petitions for Pardons and Remissions, 1859-1862, MG17-23 to MG17-24, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Frankfort, KY. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/KYR-0001-020-0115, (accessed April 24, 2024).

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Joseph Ricketts says that he was Counsel for the prisoner Duval that Since he was found guilty he applied to the Hon James Stuart the Cir Judge before whom he was tried & to Cicero Maxwell the atty for the Commonwealth who prosecuted him for a letter to be used in the nature of a petition to His Excellency Beriah Magoffin Gov of Kentucky in behalf of the prisoner. They did ~~make out~~ deliver to affiant a letter to the Governor signed by both of them in behalf of the prisoner Duval Letters forth in strong & forceable language reasons why his Excellency should interpose & change the death penalty to Confinement for a Term of years

The principal reasons, assigned were his weakness of mind & Cowardice & the the fact that other men of strong minds & will were associated with him
who in all probability led him into it That his mother is a poor widow lady respectable & resspectably connected but poor & nearly Crazy on account of the Situation of her son (as they were informed) They stated in substance that they thought he had mind enough to be & ought to be punished but that the ends of justice would be satisfied by Confinement for a long period instead of hanging After subscribers said Statement the Judge Stated at the bottom of the letter that the Jury told him that they had made every effort to find the offence manslaughter & would have done so had they not been peremtorily instructed that if they found him guilty they must find him guilty of murder Said Stuart & Maxwell ~~Said[...]Joseph Ricketts in their letter~~ also suggested in their letter that if the Gov did not
have the power to Commute the punishment to confinement in the Pentitentiary that your Excellence respite him till the Legislature department pass an act giving the power Affiant states that he believed that he had brought the said letter of the Judge and Commonwealths atty with him to Frankfort with the other papers in the case [...] Since his arrival here when upon examination he finds he left it at his office in Greenville that he intended to have brought it with him & presented it to the Gov but forgot it he therefore asks that this statement be taken in place of it

Joseph Ricketts

Sworn to before the undersigned a Justice of the peace of Franklin County Kentucky in due form Nov 8^th 1860

Geo W. Gwin J. P. F. C

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