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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 Excerpt:...Should not the meshes of the law be tightened so that the ninety-nine men may receive their deserts, even though one innocent man be convicted; for, is it not reasonably certain, if by chance an innocent man be convicted that the Pardon Board will recommend his release when the facts come before it?. Taking the records of Chatham county as more or less typical, we find that between March 14, 1905, and May 1, 1906, there were fifteen cases of homicide tried, of which eight resulted in conviction, one plea of guilty was filed, and there were six acquittals, the acquittals reaching forty per cent, of the total number of cases. Moreover, it has been asserted, without contradiction, that out of thirteen homicides recently committed upon white men in our county, only four arrests were made and three out of these four were acquitted. Now, in the Anglo-Saxon era compensation for murder was the standard measure of the gradations of society. In the early days after the Norman Conquest the peasantry of Eng 1 Turnnr v. State, 70 Ga. 765, 779. Jand were reduced to that extreme debasement, which our law ttooks call villeinage, a condition which left them no civil rights with regard to their lord. But, by the laws of William the Conqueror, compensation was allowed even for the murder of a villein or ceor), the strongest proof of his being, as it was termed, law-worth", and possessing a rank, however subordinate, in political society. In Georgia we observe that even a slave could not be murdered with impunity. For we find from the records of Liberty county that in August, 1792, Henry Johnston was convicted of the murder of a negro.1 The prisoner,'being brought before the court, prayed the benefit of the clergy, which was allowed him, and he was directed to be burned i...