August 6, 1844, Tuesday.

'Hey, Jim! Are you going to hear the testimony? Want to come with us?' Hannibal, Dan, and Cherry were already standing in front of the courthouse (and jail and sometimes Baptist church) when Jim got there. Jim nodded.

'Mr Dougherty said he couldn't leave his business, and I should "observe and report",' Jim said. As the four friends hurried up the steps and, luckily, found seats in the crowded courtroom, Jim reflected on the possible reasons for Mr Dougherty's actions in sending him to observe this, Jefferson County's first sensational trial.

One, he feels bad that I haven't really had an apprenticeship that taught me much, beyond how to weigh mail. He didn't even want to be postmaster. Two, he knows I'm leavin' next spring, and wants me to get some "world experience" before I go. Three, he's miffed that they didn't call him for jury duty, and he probably knows why. Judge Thompson isn't trying this case, but he knows Judge McCalmont from Franklin, who is. Judge Thompson and Mr Dougherty get into regular political arguments, with a lot of shouting. I'll bet the judges are afraid of a hung jury. Once Mr Dougherty's made up his mind, there's not much you can tell him. So I'll just be his eyes and ears.

Jim settled in between Hannibal and Cherry, with Dan on the end. The jury took their seats: twelve men from the county, Hiram Fuller, George Depp, Elijah Campbell, Samuel
Gibson, William Williams, Henry Smith, Lemuel Carey, Levi M. Wharton,
Robert Law, John McClelland, Andrew Gibson, and David Gillespie.

'Aren't an awful lot of them friends with the Greens?' whispered Hannibal. Edwin Green was the man on trial: a tough-looking customer sitting at the defence table with his lawyer, DB Jenks. Jenks was the man who was mad at the US mail for carrying the Whig political cartoon.

Jim nodded. 'Mr Dougherty would not like this at all.' They all stood up as Judge McCalmont entered and took his place at the bench. Jim saw Judge Thompson in the audience. He looked very dignified, as usual, but Jim couldn't help remembering that the last time he'd seen him, the judge, red-faced, was shouting, 'Dod dang it to dangnation, Dougherty, I'll not talk to such a man as you!' He suppressed a chuckle, which made Cherry shoot him an odd look.

District Attorney George R. Barrett read the charge: 'That on the 1st of May, 1844, Edwin Green, together with James, his father, did shoot dead Daniel Long, of this county, while in unlawful possession of Daniel Long's cabin. That in addition, Green did attack Samuel Knopsnyder with an axe, of which wounds he died two days later. Edwin Green is hereby charged with two counts of murder.'

There were low murmurs in the courtroom. Everyone knew what had happened, of course, at least the gist of it. But hearing it read out loud in court made an impression. The district attorney called his first witness, James Phillis. Phillis was a farmer and odd-jobber who knew both the victims. He told his story.

I met up with Dan'l Long and Sam Knopsnyder at their tract over by the Clarion River, where they was lumberin'. Dan'l ast me to plough some land for him. I had the oxen, the plough, and a cart, which kind of slowed me down. [Mild laughter in court.] That's just to say why I was behind when Dan'l and Sam went into that cabin.

Dan'l was real mad when he got to his lumber cabin and found the Greens there. Jim Green claimed the tract was his, see?

'It IS mine!' shouted James Green, who was sitting in the courtroom behind his son. Green had been let out of the jail downstairs to see his son's trial. His would come later. Two sheriff's deputies sat on either side of him. Judge McCalmont quickly called for quiet, and James Phillis went on.

Dan'l Long went to the front door of the cabin, and Sam Knopsnyder went round to the back. They were thinkin' to force their way in. All of Dan'l's stuff was in there, includin' his gun.

'That would be the gun Edwin used to shoot Dan'l?'

Yep. 'Twere. Dan'l fell down dead. Meantime, Sam got in the back door, and knocked Jim Green to the floor. Edwin grabbed up a' axt and hit Sam over the head with it, hard. Cracked his skull.

'Which is what he died of, on May 3rd?' asked the district attorney. The witness confirmed this.

About this time, I got through the door. Edwin swung the axt and caught me on the arm. It was bleedin' like nobody's business. He r'ared up to hit me again, but just then Jim Crow and Will Dougherty come in, 'cause they'd heard the shot, you see, and got between us. That's why I'm still here.

And that's another reason Mr Dougherty's not on the jury, thought Jim. Will Dougherty was his nephew. But why didn't they exclude all the Greens' friends from the jury? It didn't seem completely fair. Jim was curious as to how this would turn out.

DB Jenks cross-examined the witness, as best he could.

'When Long and Knopsnyder headed into that cabin, were they mad?'

'Sure, they was mad. Wouldn't you be?' [Laughter.]

'Did you get the feeling they intended violence on the Greens?'

Phillis squinted at the lawyer. 'If you mean, were they mebbe plannin' to cross fists with 'em both? Why, surely. They'd been arguin' over that tract o' land for months. Dan'l figured he had the right of it. His daddy Ludwig was one of the first white men hereabouts. Dan'l grew up huntin' and trappin' these woods. He had a claim on that land before the Greens come along and squatted on it.' [Attempted interruption by James Green quashed.] 'But if you mean, did they plan murder? Why, no. How could they? Dan'l's gun and axt was in the cabin, like I said. They didn't even pick up a stick or a tool from my cart afore they went in. I reckon they meant to settle the question like men.'

There was a murmur of assent in the courtroom, and several jury members looked distinctly uncomfortable.

James Crow and William Dougherty were called, and essentially confirmed Phillis' testimony. DB Jenks questioned them sharply but was unable to shake their testimony. Other witnesses were called to establish Daniel Long's prior claim to the land in question, and to speak to his character. Long's wife and three small children were not present.

For the defence, DB Jenks called both Edwin and James Green, who gave their side of the story thus: they felt 'hard done by' in the matter of the land, as they'd been camping on it for awhile before Long showed up and announced his intention to lumber there. They'd taken over the cabin in his absence, intending to establish 'occupancy'. When Long, Knopsnyder, and Phillis showed up, they panicked. That was their story, and they stuck to it, even when District Attorney Barrett challenged them.

Jenks didn't bother with 'character witnesses'. Since everyone in the county knew all the participants in the story, it wouldn't have done any good. The jury retired, and the spectators went outside for fresh air and lunch.

'What do you think?' Jim asked his friends as they shared sandwiches from the Johnston kitchen.

'I'd hang 'em both,' said Cherry definitively. 'Those Greens are mean as rattlesnakes. Imagine shootin' somebody over a piece of ground.'

Dan Craig agreed, but Hannibal grew thoughtful. 'I don't think they exactly planned to kill anybody that day,' he reasoned. 'You can't call that cold-blooded murder. But it was murder. Murder in the heat of anger and malice, what do you call that?'

'I'd call it murder in the second degree,' said Jim. 'But I don't know what that jury will call it.'

But 'murder in the second degree' was exactly what the jury called it, when they returned the verdict that afternoon. Two counts. Edwin Green was sentenced to four years' hard labour and solitary confinement in the Western Penitentiary in Pittsburgh. In addition, he had to pay a $1 fine, and court costs.

'What does 'hard labour in solitary confinement' mean?' Jim asked Hannibal, who had been talking to DB Jenks afterward.

'It means he'll have to live and work in a cell by himself the whole time, with nobody to talk to but a prison guard,' was the reply. 'They just push the food through a slot on a tray, and take out the slops, and that's your whole world for four years.'

Cherry shuddered. 'That's horrible. I kind of feel sorry for Edwin Green now.'

Jim looked at Cherry, surprised. 'I thought you wanted to hang him?'

She shrugged. 'What he did was terrible. Those poor little kids have no daddy now. But livin' inside a stone room like that, winter and summer…it's almost worse than dyin'.'

Dan agreed. 'I think I'd rather be hung than that. At least it would be over quicker.'

Hannibal whistled. 'And then you'd have to explain yourself to another court entirely. I guess it's like the Book says, "Be sure your sins will find you out."'

Jim couldn't disagree with any of that. He waved them goodbye and went off to report to Mr Dougherty.

Dmitri Gheorgheni