On the 26th of April, 1830, James Porter and George Wilson were brought before the circuit court, and the grand jury presented six bills of indictment against them.
They pleaded not guilty to all these indictments, and applied for separate trials, which was granted.
On the trial Wilson was identified as one of the robbers, by the evidence of some of the passengers, as well as that of Poteet. The watches taken from the passengers, and pawned by him, were produced in court and sworn to. So were the weapons stolen from Mr. Watt’s shop. The other facts relating to the robbery were proved, in substance, as we have given them.
The jury found a verdict of guilty.
Porter was next arraigned, and found guilty on the same evidence. Sentence of death was passed upon him and Wilson. After sentence Porter showed contrition, but suffered with the same hardihood that he had exhibited throughout. We can accord him no pity. He was the master spirit, the ringleader, the captain of a band of highway robbers. He had collected a gang about him, drilled, marshalled, and equipped them, and led them forth to an unholy warfare against the peace and interest of society.
Wilson was pardoned by president Jackson; for what reason, we cannot pretend to divine. The pardon set forth that certain disclosures were expected from him but we never heard that he made any.
Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious errors in punctuation were fixed.
Some of the illustrations were relocated to be closer to the relevant content.
[Page 38]: “not much dis-disposed” changed to “not much disposed”