Viewing Trials Category (3) found:Darwin S. Hall: "The First Lawsuit in Birch Cooley Township." (1916)The first trial in Birch Cooley Township in Renville County was held in 1868 in the small house of Willard Drury, Justice of the Peace. John Tracy was prosecuted for cruelty to his neighbor's cattle when they strayed over the property line onto his land. He was tried before a conscientious six man jury, which rendered its verdict: guilty but not guilty. This story, told by Darwin S. Hall, appeared first in a history of Renville County published in 1916. "The Celebrated Kate Noonan Case." (1877)On February 16, 1877, Kate Noonan shot and killed William Sidle outside the Nicollet House in Minneapolis. She was tried in June, but the jury deadlocked. When the judge dismissed the jury, Noonan was in her cell. Her attorneys sought to free her via a writ of habeas corpus on the ground that her absence from the courtroom barred a retrial. After the district court refused, she appealed to the supreme court, which heard oral argument on July 3, 1877. The next day, the "Pioneer Press" newspaper carried a lengthy account of that proceeding, one of the few we have of appellate arguments in this state in the late nineteenth century. In October the court dismissed her appeal, and she was retried in December. On December 24, 1877, the jury returned its verdict. Again, the "Pioneer Press" carried a long and colorful description of the atmosphere in the courtroom when the verdict was read. Joseph O. Barrett: "The First Lawsuit in Traverse County." (1881).This account of the momentous "Brown v. Folsom" litigation appeared in Joseph O. Barrett's county history published in 1881. |