W. W. Bonner et al. to Beriah Magoffin

KYR-0001-020-0163.xml

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Accession Number

KYR-0001-020-0163

Document Genre

Petition

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

MG17-91 to MG17-92

Place of Creation

McClean County, Kentucky

Date of Creation

n.d.

Dates Mentioned

--09

1860-11-19

W. W. Bonner et al. to Beriah Magoffin, n.d., Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Petitions for Pardons and Remissions, 1859-1862, MG17-91 to MG17-92, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Frankfort, KY. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/KYR-0001-020-0163, (accessed August 18, 2025).

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To His Excellency Beriah Magoffin Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky

Your Petitioner would most humbly represent to your Excellency that at the last Sept Term of the M^cLean Circuit Court, they your Petitioners were empannelled as a Jury to try Stephen Duval for murder he was tried & found guilty They would represent unto your Excellency that although from the rules of law & the instructions given them they were bound to find that he had mind enough to be found guilty of crime yet it was clearly proven that he was a person of very weak mind a great drunkard & great coward & we had not the least doubt but that he was either lead or forced into a participation in the crime by one or two other bold daring & wreckless & desperate men he being at the time in all probability under the influence of liquor or even drunk From these Considerations, the respectability of his family his widower mother & the universal sympathy that exists in his favor we most humbly Petition your excellency to interpose in his behalf & charge if in your power the punishment of death to that of confinement in the penitentiary for a Term of years. or if you have not such power that you respite him til the Legislataure will clothe your Excellency with it --

We would here state that if it had not been for the position instruction of the Court we would have found the offense manslaughter instead of murder. We can not but think that the executive Clemency would be wisely humanely exercised in this case: Your Excellency as the chief officer of this good old Commonwealth & there has
been wisely placed in your hands the power to relieve the poor ~~Convict~~ prisoner when from the strict rules of law Juries can have no mercy & we the late triers of the unfortunate Duval become humble Petitioners in his behalf & will ever pray &c

W W Bonner
T, B Vackett
william Settle
Allen Jameson
George Dickin
Thomas Kennedy
Geoge W Tichenor
Lycurgno L. Little
James Jackson
J,, H. Jackson
Finis H Little
John M Jewell
Thomas Lindrum (sen
H Griffith
James Porter
R H Glover
G. H. Hoffman
L, B, Lillard
J S Edwards
J W Overstreet
Josh Banner
Joseph Dalines
Joseph Infield
Aaron Leet
W J Hardin

H [...]
W C Mosley
J S Stewart
S Bethel
S. F Vaughan
C, L, Stuteville
J W Smith
B W Grady
H G Hamilton
Augustus Ellis
Z. B, Freeman
Edwin Jones
Andrew Smith
Bliar H Williamson
W^m H. Thomasson
James Waltrop
John Lynn
R, S, Head
S P Caslin
John W. Pulliam
John H Lemons
Geo W Head
J M Tailor
Jas W, Wilhite
N G Wishire
A Jordan
N. Odaniel

Stephn Duval

Issue pardon upon condition he will serve in the Penitentiary for life --

B. Magoffin

M^cLean Co.

Sentence of Death commuted to Imprisonment for life

Nov: 19 1860

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