Alexandria Gazette

EXTRAORDINARY.

The Milledgeville papers contain long reports of the trial of William A. Harris, a youth fourteen years old, for voluntary manslaughter.

The case was determined by a verdict of acquittal. A bill, in the first instance, was preferred on the part of the State for murder, which the grand jury ignored, recommending, in their return to the Solicitor General, to prefer a new bill for voluntary manslaughter, which was accordingly done.

The accused, a child of fourteen years of age and three months, was arraigned for the homicide of Richard H. Sanford, his schoolmate, a child but little over twelve years of age, pleaded not guilty to the indictment found, and demanded a new trial. An effort was made to continue the case, by the State, on the ground of the absence of a young man by the name of Bond, who had left the country a few days before, by the assent and permission of the prosecutor. The motion was denied by his honor, Judge Hill, who presided. The case then proceeded. A jury was easily made, and by a proposition emanating from the father of the accused, the door to the admission of all the evidence connected with the conduct of either of the boys was thrown open.

Notwithstanding the deep and universal sympathy in behalf of the accused, on account of his youth, and a belief in his want of discretion to commit crime, he was most honorably acquitted, upon evidence which satisfied those who witnessed the trial, that he had sought to avoid a difficulty with the deceased, but it was forced upon him; and that he gave the fatal wound under penance and an apprehension, his intention in do him serious injury. It is proper to add that the deceased, though younger than the accused, was the heavier boy by some fifteen or twenty pounds.