Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1859 — A Boy Convicted of Manslaughter. [ARTICLE]

A Boy Convicted of Manslaughter.

The recent trial of a boy named Stallings, for the murder of a school-mate named Stillwell, in Posy county, has created a good deal ofleeling. The Advocate ot Mount Vernon, says: Stallings is in his eighteen’h year, though youthful in his appearance, and unu-uiily small lor his age. S nee his arrest, and during his trial, he has mani ested a stolid indifference, which can only be accounted lor as either the result of inability to comprehend his position, uncommon s If-eont.rol, or an extremely callous disposition. The testimony elicited in the trial was to about the follow ing effect: The difficulty which resulted in the murder took plaqe at a school which bo*h parties attended, originating from a dispute as t > : the au'horship of what was claimed to be a | love-letter, purporting to have been written Iby Stallings, but which each accused the other of writing. The dispute and quarrel | commenced during the morning exercises of the school attracting the attention of the teacher, who arrested it for the time, but it was commenced again at recess. Stillwell’s ; sister then interposed, requesting the parties to desist from quarreling. Stillwell ex- ; pressed his willingness to do so. Stallings | made riK reply, hut walked off some distance to a fallen tree, where he remained a sh ut ! time, and then returned, with his hands in lliis pockets, to where Stillwell, his sister,; and other pupils ot the school were standing.! remarking as he approached, that lie-would \ as if|oii fight a little as not. Siillwel! re-j plied that, he (Stallings) was get 1 ing big.; and ought to write another love-letter, and I S aij no; retorted by giving hi the lie. Stilwrii caught him by the hair and stru k him. Stallings drew his hands from his pickets, in one of which he held an open knife with which he immediately struck Stillwell a blow on the leit breast, t .e kni:e penetrating to the region , the heart? Stillwell reeled and fell, hut in a short time recovered his teet, remarking that he could whip any Stallings. He remaind standing hot a lewmoments, when he again fell, and in less than five minutes he expired. Tne jury brought in a verdict of rnans!:iu liter, and condemned the prison >r to the p nitent i try for tw’o years. Public opinion approves the verdict.