Joseph Ricketts, Affidavit
1860-11-08
- Date of Creation
- November 8, 1860
- Place of Creation
- Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky
- 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
- Box / Folder
- MG17-23 to MG17-24
- CWGK Accession Number
- KYR-0001-020-0115
- Rights
- This image and its transcription are freely available to the public. Images appear courtesy of Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Transcriptions and annotations were created by Kentucky Historical Society staff, volunteers, and interns. When referencing this document, please use our preferred citation.; The use of transcriptions, images, or annotations from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce any material on CWGK is required.
- FTP Identifier
- 32208525
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- Dates
- 1860-11-08
Citation
Joseph Ricketts, Affidavit, 1860-11-08, Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Petitions for Pardons and Remissions, 1859-1862, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/KYR-0001-020-0115 (December 16, 2025).
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
Geo W. Gwin J. P. F. C