This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: ADAMS, ALLEN, BACON, BIRD, BLANDFORD, BORDERS, BRADFORD, BYRD, COLE, CRAWFORD, DECKER, EADY, EDDY, INGMIRE, JEPSON, JOHNSON, KENNEDY, KIRVEN, LeHATT, LEONARD, McGOVERN, PACKER, ROUNDS, THORNTON, VERNOY, WIGGINS, WIGGINGS Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Xd.2ADE/1459 Message Board Post: “After remanding the prisoners to jail, the case of Ben WIGGINGS, charged with the murder of Wm. BIRD, was called, and the following special jury was empanneled from the regular juries and 24 talismen: A. INGMIRE, J. A. KIRVEN, Edward PACKER, W. O. BORDERS, F. M. LEONARD, W. H. ADAMS, James VERNOY, J. H. LeHATT, W. JEPSON and James McGOVERN. “The whole of the morning was consumed in hearing witnesses. Jackson BIRD, having absconded, his testimony given in at the preliminary examination, was allowed read in behalf of the State. Other State witnesses, Dr. BACON, H. P. EDDY and A. A. COLE, testified to little calculated to implicate WIGGINS. “The defense introduced seven witnesses as follows: Andrew DECKER, W. V. ROUNDS, Phin WIGGINS, Ann WIGGINS, Lizzie WIGGINS, and Jessee ALLEN. The testimony of these witnesses tended not so much to exculpate WIGGINS (the prisoner) as to implicate Jackson BIRD, who has fled from the State. Daniel KENNEDY said Jack told him that he committed the crime. Sheriff BRADFORD swore that Jackson BIRD confessed to him that he was so drunk he knew not who killed his brother. W. V. ROUNDS testified that Jackson BIRD told him that it was his (Jack’s) fault that deceased was killed. Lizzie WIGGINS swore that Jack admitted to her that he knew who committed the murder, and acknowledged that he was the cause of it. Jesse ALLEN swore that Jackson BIRD said to him in a recent conversation that he was going to leave the State, that he did not intend to prosecute the case against WIGGINS, as he thought it a shame that an innocent man should be hung. “At twelve o’clock the Court took a recess until half past two o’clock, at which hour the argument in the case was opened by Solicitor [Cary J.] THORNTON for the prosecution in a fifteen minutes’ speech. He was followed by Mark BLANDFORD, Esq., in an able defense of the prisoner, of the same duration. Col. M[artin] J[enkins] CRAWFORD, for the defense, next made an able argument, in which the whole field of evidence was scanned, and the testimony of Jackson BIRD, upon which the State mainly relied, utterly rebutted. “The argument occupied only two hours, and upon its conclusion Judge JOHNSON, in his usual clear, perspicuous manner, charged the jury upon the law points of the case, defining in turn murder, manslaughter, and justifiable homicide, and pointing out the manner in which the evidence was to be considered, and the weight which should be attached collectively or separately to witnesses. “The jury retired at half past four o’clock, and in ten minutes returned the following verdict: ‘We the jury find the prisoner not guilty.’ “Thus has ended the most important case of this session.” [From the “Columbus, Georgia, Daily Enquirer” newspaper, Saturday, 07 JAN 1871, p. 3, column 2, top.]