Court Humor

In Vance County a man by the name of Overby was indicted for larceny and for burglariously entering the house of another. When the jury came in, the defendant asked that the jury be polled. Eleven out of the twelve replied " guilty on both counts." One juror by the name of Watson said he did not  know much about the two counts, but was in favor of finding the defendant guilty of taking the money. Judge Bowman asked him how he supposed the defendant got the money. Watson's reply was, "I don't know very much about that.  It was too long between drinks.''

The Supreme Court, in concluding its opinion, says, if this juror Watson was not punished for contempt it must have been owing to the great leniency of the presiding Judge, not because he did agree with the other jurors, but for the manner in which he demeaned himself.

©2011 to present by Deloris Williams, and/or individual contributors, for the NCGenWeb Project. You are free to use records on this site for your own personal research.  Any republication or reposting is expressly forbidden without the written consent of the owner..  Last updated 08/27/2020