Historical encyclopedia of Illinois . executioners, so that no one might knowwho held the empty pieces. This afforded for each and every one of them tofeel and believe that it was not his rifie thatcontributed to the death of either of the , at the September term. ISil. of ourCircuit Court, presided over by Judge ThomasFord, then an Associate Justice of the SupremeCourt of the State, a Grand Jury was empan-elled, evidence heard, and two indictments re-turned against 112 persons, one charging themurder of William Driscoll, and the other ofJohn Driscoll. Part of t
Historical encyclopedia of Illinois . executioners, so that no one might knowwho held the empty pieces. This afforded for each and every one of them tofeel and believe that it was not his rifie thatcontributed to the death of either of the , at the September term. ISil. of ourCircuit Court, presided over by Judge ThomasFord, then an Associate Justice of the SupremeCourt of the State, a Grand Jury was empan-elled, evidence heard, and two indictments re-turned against 112 persons, one charging themurder of William Driscoll, and the other ofJohn Driscoll. Part of the men indicted weremembers of this Grand Jury, and in a way con-tributed to present true bills of indictmentagainst themselves. It is apparent, however,from an inspection of the record, that it was thedesire of the Regulators to have indictments re-turned, so that there could be a trial and ac-quittal of those accused when the surroundingswere favorable to that end. It is said that, asa matter of fact, Jonathan W. Jenkins, the per-. C. F. HAYES AND FAMILY HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY. 735 sou first named iu each of these iudietments. hadnothing to do with the execution of the )ut was regarded as friendly to them, and itwas feared that perhaps he might furnish somedamaging evidence. Under the law, as it thenexisted, a person indicted for a crime could nottestify, and his mouth was closed by the return-ing of this indictment against him. The Indictments, framed in the peculiar phrase-ology of the time, were returned on Friday, Sep-tember 2-i, 1S41. and on the same day all but tenof the defendants were placed upon trial. Underthe law then existing, each of the defendantshad a right to The peremptory challenge of twen-ty men, and this would have disix)sed of 2,010jurors, a much large number of men than therewere then iu the county; but, as I take it, nochallenges were used by the defense. When thefirst case was called, an attorney named Knowl-ton asked leave to assist the Peo
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