By the Court.
delivering the opinion.
Two grounds of error have been assigned upon the record to the judgment of the Court below.
First, that the Jury were not impannelled as required by law.
Second, that the verdict of the Jury was contrary to law and evidence and the charge of the Court.
[1.] The 9th section of the Act of 1816, which is amendatory of the Act of 1811, provides, that the Justices of the Inferior Court, or a majority of them, when notified of the commitment of a slave for a capital offence, shall cause to be drawn, fairly and impartially, from the Jury box, the names of persons subject to serve as Jurors, not less than twenty-six, nor more than thirty-six JurorSi who shall be summoned to attend at the time and place
The answer to thatargument is, that the Legislature most clearly contemplated that the owner or manager of the slave would protect his own interest and the rights of his slave; for the right to challenge seven of the Jurors, is expressly given to the owner of the slave. Not only the interest which the owner has in his slave, but his personal attachment for him, will always prompt him to be vigilant in securing and protecting all the rights of his slave ; and, as is too often the case, as we all know, the just penalty of the law is defeated in consequence of such interest and attachment. Here, the owner of the slave thinking, doubtless, it would be for the interest of his slave, as well as for his own interest, to take the first twelve on the Jury list, waived the impannelling more than twenty-three, and we think he had the legal right, under the law, to make such waiver.
[2.] With regard to the second ground of error, it has been urged upon us, that a new trial should be granted, because the evidence was not sufficient to authorize the Jury to have found the slave guilty of the offence with which he was charged. Had we been the Jurors who tried the cause, we might have drawn a different conclusion from the evidence than they did, and felt it to have been our duty to have found the slave not guilty; but there was some evidence of which the Jury were the exclusive judges, and they, in the exercise of their judgment, have found him guil
Let the judgment of the Court below be affirmed.