HE REFUSED HIS PARDON-PART 1

HE REFUSED HIS PARDON- STORY OF WILSON

 

It is seldom that  a person under sentence of death has refused a pardon. Yet there is one case on record, in the  annals of the United States Supreme Court, in which a man sentence to die actualld did rufuse to accept a pardon.
 The Court records show that two men, Wilson and Potter wre convicted and sentence to be hanged for robbery of the U.S. mail in 1829. Potter was executed on july 2, 1830. About 3weeks before the time set for Wilson's execusion, he was granted a pardon by president Andrew Jackson.
  But instead of accepting the pardon Wilson changed a plea of "not guilty", connection with the same crime, to guilty. This raised the point of law as to whether the pardon should be held to relieve him of conviction and punishment for the lesser offense. When He was given the opportunity to plead the pardon, he refused to do so. refusal to accept a pardon was a point of law that had never been raised before, and supreme court was called upon to render a decision. Accordingly, in january, 1833, the supreme court handed down the following decision, written by cheif justice John marshall ( U.S vs Gorge wilson, 7 Peters Report, p. 150)

watchout for the concluding part tomorrow

HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!