Simon, A Slave v. The State of Florida: The Precedent-Setting Decision Establishing Confessions Extracted by Threats or Promises Are Inadmissible at Trial
In February 1854, the Pensacola Gazette reported that an enslaved person by the name of Simon, whose criminal conviction for arson had been reversed by the Florida Supreme Court, had died in prison.[1] Today the events surrounding Simon’s arrest, trial, conviction, appeal, and death are little known. However, the Florida Supreme Court’s holding in Simon’s case that confessions extracted by threats or promises are inadmissible at criminal trials has been a pillar of Florida criminal law for more than 165 years. This article pieces together the historical record of Simon’s case, provides context for its events, and tells Simon’s story.
The 1852 Pensacola Fires
On Sunday, October 17, 1852, between the hours of 2 and 3 a.m., the people of Pensacola were awoken by cries of fire at the Collins Hotel.[2] In the early 1850s, the Collins Hotel was known as “one of handsomest buildings” in Pensacola.[3] The conflagration, which reportedly began in a building used as the hotel’s kitchen, spread rapidly to the hotel itself and destroyed it.[4] The fire then spread across the street and destroyed the home of Francisco Moreno. Initially, it was thought that the fire was accidental.[5] On Monday, October 18, 1852, between the hours of 1 and 2 a.m., Dr. R.T. Maxwell’s home was discovered to be on fire and was soon consumed by the flames.[6] Later that same day, an unknown person attempted to set fire to the residence of a Mrs. Derry, but the perpetrator was discovered and escaped.[7] On Tuesday, October 19, 1852, at about 1 a.m., Pensacola’s citizens were again called from their beds when the kitchen of Alex McVoy was discovered to be on fire.[8] Townspeople were able to extinguish the flames and save the home.[9] As observed by the Pensacola Gazette, these four fires, in just two days, caused the citizens of Pensacola to become “wrought up to a state of complete alarm and excitement,” and “every means [was] adopted to discover the incendiary.”[10]
Simon’s Arrest
Four days after the fire that took place at Alex McVoy’s home, Pensacola Mayor Joseph Sierra ordered the arrest of one of McVoy’s slaves. His name was Simon.[11] Simon was brought to the mayor’s office, where Mayor Sierra proceeded to interrogate him about the fires.[12] The Escambia County Clerk’s records do not reveal why Mayor Sierra suspected that Simon had been involved in the fires. According to Mayor Sierra, Simon confessed that he had set fire to the homes of Dr. Maxwell, Derry, and McVoy.[13] In Mayor Sierra’s words, Simon’s confession was “voluntary” and “without any threats or coercion.”[14] The next day, Simon was led into court in the custody of the city jailor.[15] Based upon an affidavit signed by Mayor Sierra and McVoy, the Escambia County justice of the peace ordered that Simon be held in prison pending trial.[16] Because the circuit court in Pensacola would not be back in session until the following June, Simon would have to wait eight months for his trial to begin.
The Florida Circuit Courts in the Early 1850s
Florida did not gain statehood until 1845,[17] and in the 1850s its judicial system was still in its early stages of development. Florida’s first constitution divided the state into four judicial circuits: Western, Middle, Eastern, and Southern.[18] Each of these judicial circuits had one judge[19] who would travel from county to county at different times of the year to preside over both civil and criminal cases.[20] Pensacola was located in the Western Judicial District.[21] Barring the breakout of infectious disease, the Escambia County Circuit Court was to convene in Pensacola twice a year — once in June and once in October.[22]
According to the 1850 census, for Florida’s more than 87,000 residents, there were 131 lawyers.[23] The road to becoming a Florida lawyer was very different in 1850 than it is today. At that time, there were only 15 law schools in the United States,[24] and none of them were located in Florida.[25] Most 19th century lawyers and judges in the United States acquired their legal education by apprenticing, or, in the terms of the day, by reading the law under the tutelage of practicing lawyers.[26] Bar exams at that time were oral and normally casual.[27] For example, according to one account, attorney Abraham Lincoln once conducted an Illinois bar exam as he scrubbed himself in a tub.[28] Lincoln’s befuddled bar examinee stood by the tub and did his best to explain the law of contracts, but was unsure of whether he was actually taking the bar exam.[29]
Enslaved Persons in the Florida Courts
An enslaved Floridian rarely saw the inside of a courthouse.[30] Florida law considered enslaved persons to be personal property, and it placed wide-ranging powers in the hands of the slaveholder.[31] Consequently, it was the slaveholder who normally meted out punishments to the enslaved, and a slaveholder’s justice was unchecked and arbitrary.[32] However, when particularly serious offenses like arson were involved, Florida law placed enslaved persons within the jurisdiction of the state’s courts.[33] In the courtroom, enslaved Floridians did not enjoy the constitutional protections that white Floridians enjoyed. For example, the Declaration of Rights in Florida’s 1838 Constitution guaranteed the accused in a criminal prosecution an impartial jury.[34] However, bigotry, which was both inherent to and endemic in Florida’s slave-holding society, made Florida incapable of providing this fundamental right to its enslaved residents. Furthermore, despite the fact that the Declaration of Rights prohibited the state from inflicting cruel and unusual punishments,[35] Florida law mandated cruel and unusual punishments for the enslaved. One Florida statute required that a slave convicted of perjury was to have his or her ear nailed to a wooden post, and then to stand nailed to that post for one hour.[36] The slave’s mutilated ear would then be severed from the head,[37] and the slave would receive 39 lashes on his or her bare back.[38] Notwithstanding these inequities and cruelties, it was in the courtroom that an enslaved Floridian stood the best chance for an impartial hearing in a criminal case.[39] Perhaps founded more on the Florida Legislature’s intent to protect the property rights of slaveholders rather than any egalitarian intent to protect the rights of the enslaved,[40] Florida law directed that in the trial of any slave in the circuit court, the same rules of criminal procedure observed for white defendants should apply for enslaved defendants.[41] Enslaved defendants were afforded the right to a jury trial,[42] the right to counsel,[43] the right to confront witnesses,[44] the right to compulsory process for obtaining witnesses,[45] and the right to appeal.[46]
Simon’s Attorney
Simon’s attorney at trial and on appeal was Richard Lewis Campbell.[47] At the time of Simon’s trial in June 1853, Campbell was 29 years old.[48] He had received his early education in Pensacola, but around age 17, his wealthy father sent him to a boys school in New York City.[49] Upon his return to Pensacola, Campbell began reading the law as an apprentice in a local firm.[50] A few years later, Campbell opened a law office.[51] Campbell was a beneficiary of, and an active participant in, Florida’s slave system. At one time, Campbell’s father had owned as many as 19 slaves.[52] In February 1858, Campbell himself sold a 22-year-old enslaved man by the name of Ben for the price of $1,200.[53] Notably, Campbell would become an ardent supporter of the Confederacy during the Civil War, swearing his allegiance to it in 1861[54] and abetting the South’s cause by donating money to equip Confederate troops for battle.[55] However, despite Campbell’s participation in, and promotion of, Florida’s slave system, the trial and appellate record from Simon’s case supports the contention that Campbell fought hard for Simon’s acquittal.
The Circuit Court Judge
The circuit court judge in Simon’s case was Jesse J. Finley.[56] Judge Finley was born in Tennessee and briefly served as the mayor of Memphis in 1845.[57] In 1846, Finley moved to Florida, and on May 1, 1853, Florida Gov. Thomas Brown appointed him circuit judge of the Western Judicial Circuit of Florida.[58] During the Civil War, Finley would reach the rank of brigadier general in the Confederate Army;[59] after the Civil War, Finley would serve as a congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives.[60] In the late 1880s, Finley returned to the Florida bench as a circuit court judge in Marion County.[61]
Though Finley was admitted to the Tennessee Bar in 1838 and had been an attorney for approximately 15 years when Gov. Brown appointed him to the Florida judiciary,[62] at the time of Simon’s trial, he had been on the bench for just six weeks. Arguably, Judge Finley’s lack of judicial experience would affect the outcome in Simon’s trial.
Simon’s Trial
Simon’s trial took place on Friday, June 17, 1853.[63] Just as today, the trial began with voir dire. The Escambia County Clerk of Court’s notes of the voir dire still exist and show that Simon’s attorney used 13 of the 20 peremptory challenges allowed by law.[64] Judge Finley struck another 18 jurors for cause.[65] Ultimately, 12 jurors were selected to decide the case.[66]
The state’s first witness was Pensacola Mayor Joseph Sierra.[67] Sierra’s testified as follows: Sometime after the fire at Dr. Maxwell’s house, Simon was arrested and brought to the mayor’s office, where Mayor Sierra interrogated him concerning the recent rash of fires.[68] During Simon’s interrogation, there was a great crowd just outside the mayor’s office calling for Simon to be hanged.[69] According to Mayor Sierra, if not for the protection he gave Simon, “the people would have taken [Simon] into their own hands.”[70] The mayor told Simon that if he admitted that he alone had burned Dr. Maxwell’s house, that he would be tried and certainly hung.[71] However, the mayor also told Simon that if he had accomplices, he could turn state’s evidence and his accomplices would be put on trial rather than him.[72] Simon hung down his head for a while, and then the mayor asked him what he had to say.[73] Simon replied, “Send for my master, and I will tell the whole.”[74] Simon’s master, Alex McVoy, arrived at the mayor’s office, and McVoy reiterated to Simon the warnings and promises that the mayor had already made.[75] Simon then stated that he had set fire to Dr. Maxwell’s house, and that he was alone when he did it.[76] Simon told Mayor Sierra and McVoy that he had started the fire at a ground-floor window on the east side of Dr. Maxwell’s house and remained there until it was blazing.[77] Mayor Sierra later visited Simon in jail to inquire again whether he had any accomplices, and Simon told him that there was a boy who was an accomplice.[78] When the mayor had the boy arrested and brought before Simon, Simon said the boy was not his accomplice, and the boy was released.[79] After several other witnesses were called to establish the ownership of Dr. Maxwell’s home, the state rested its case.[80]
Simon’s attorney then called his first witness, Mr. Joseph Commyns.[81] Commyns testified that he saw Dr. Maxwell’s house on fire at about 2 a.m. and that he was one of the first persons to arrive on scene.[82] Commyns contradicted Simon’s purported confession. According to Commyns, the fire did not start at the ground floor of the house as Simon had stated, but rather at the shingles on the roof.[83] Simon’s attorney then called his second witness, Chester Knapp,[84] who was a merchant originally from Connecticut.[85] Knapp also contradicted Simon’s purported confession. According to Knapp, the fire had not started on the ground floor, but rather in the attic.[86] Further, Knapp testified that upon seeing the attic in flames, he had tried to break down the front door of the home, and that had the ground floor windows been burning, he would have noticed.[87] The state then reopened its case and called Simon’s master, McVoy.[88] On cross-examination, McVoy testified that he was in the mayor’s office when Simon confessed and that Simon was “laboring under great terror, and that he never saw anyone more terrified.”[89] At the close of the evidence, attorney Campbell made a motion for Judge Finley to exclude Simon’s confession from the jury’s consideration, arguing that Simon’s statements to Mayor Sierra were elicited by undue terror or the hope of reward.[90] Though both English[91] and American common law excluded from evidence confessions procured through fear or promise, Judge Finley, perhaps due to his inexperience on the bench, denied attorney Campbell’s motion and left it to the jury to determine whether Simon’s confession was voluntary.[92]
The members of the jury retired to deliberate.[93] Precisely how long their deliberations took is not recorded. After deliberations, the jury foreman, Mr. James H. Lloyd, wrote the following on a slip of paper: “We the [j]urors find the prisoner guilty as charged in the indictment.”[94] The clerk read the guilty verdict and then polled the jurors one by one to confirm it.[95] Simon was removed from the courtroom. The next day, Simon was brought back into court.[96] Judge Finley asked Simon if there was any reason why he should not proceed with sentencing.[97] Simon responded that he was not guilty of the crime.[98] Judge Finley then ordered that Simon be kept in jail until Friday, August 26, 1853, at which time, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., the Sheriff of Escambia County was to take Simon to “some convenient place” in Escambia County, and “hang him, the said Simon, by the neck until he be dead — dead — dead.”[99]
The Florida Supreme Court in 1853
Because in 1853 there were no intermediate courts of appeal in Florida, attorney Campbell appealed Simon’s case directly to the Florida Supreme Court. At the time of Simon’s appeal, the Florida Supreme Court consisted of one chief justice and two associate justices.[100] The chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court was Benjamin D. Wright.[101] Chief Justice Wright was born, raised, and received his legal education in Pennsylvania, but at age 24, he had relocated to Pensacola where he practiced law, became active in politics, and for five years owned the Pensacola Gazette.[102] Simon’s lawyer, Richard Campbell, likely read the law under Wright,[103] and the two men would become close friends.[104] The two other associate justices were Albert G. Semmes, a Georgia-born attorney whose extended family included a future Confederate admiral and a future Confederate senator,[105] and Leslie A. Thompson, a South Carolina-born attorney who had previously served as mayor of Tallahassee.[106]
With Simon’s execution set for August 26, 1853, Justices Wright, Semmes, and Thompson would hear argument on Simon’s case during the court’s July 1853 term. None of these justices sympathized with the plight of Florida’s enslaved persons. All three justices were slaveholders,[107] and Justices Semmes and Thompson had authored Florida Supreme Court decisions that were pro-slavery and rife with racism.[108] Certainly, Simon faced an uphill battle at the Florida Supreme Court.
Oral Arguments
Oral argument in Simon’s case began on Wednesday, July 13, 1853, and stretched into the next day.[109] Attorney Campbell argued that Judge Finley should have excluded Simon’s confession from the jury’s consideration because Simon’s confession had been obtained through fear and promise. Since Florida had so little caselaw in 1853, to support his argument, attorney Campbell predominantly cited legal treatises on criminal law, which in turn cited to both English and American caselaw. For example, Campbell cited a legal treatise published in 1819, which noted that confessions must be considered with caution, as they are “likely to be influenced by hope or fear, and the terror of a sudden accusation, and [are] so liable, like all hearsay evidence, to be misreported.”[110] Attorney Campbell also cited an 1850 treatise that described an English case[111] in which a man accused of murder, after being promised a pardon, admitted his guilt. Notwithstanding the man’s confession, the murder victim later appeared alive and well.[112] Attorney Campbell also relied on a case decided by the Mississippi Supreme Court almost 30 years earlier. In Serpentine v. State, 1 Howard 256 (1835), a group of vigilantes pulled a man named Serpentine out of his bed in the middle of the night, tied him naked to a tree, and whipped him.[113] The purpose of this brutal attack was to force Serpentine to confess to a murder of a man that had taken place several weeks earlier.[114] After being whipped, Serpentine was ordered to confess to the murder, and he nodded his head in affirmance.[115] The next morning, Serpentine was taken to a magistrate and informed that he had a right to make a confession.[116] Present in the room with the magistrate were two of the vigilantes who had whipped Serpentine the night before. Serpentine allegedly confessed his guilt to the magistrate.[117] Over objection, a Mississippi trial court allowed Serpentine’s alleged confessions into evidence and a jury convicted him of murder.[118] However, the Mississippi Supreme Court overturned the conviction, stating that if Serpentine had indeed confessed to the murder, he may have done so based upon “a strong sense of impending danger.”[119] Attorney Campbell likely argued to the Florida Supreme Court that Serpentine’s case was directly on point with Simon’s case. Just as the presence and menace of the Mississippi vigilantes had terrorized Serpentine into confessing to the magistrate, the presence and menace of the Pensacola crowd calling for Simon to be hung had terrorized Simon into confessing to the mayor. On Thursday, July 14, 1853, oral argument was concluded, and the case was submitted to Florida’s Supreme Court.[120]
The Court’s Decision
On Monday, July 25, 1853, the Florida Supreme Court reconvened to announce its decision in Simon’s case.[121] Judge Finley, who had presided over Simon’s trial in Pensacola, was present in court to hear the Supreme Court’s announcement.[122] Probably much to Judge Finley’s surprise, the Florida Supreme Court announced that it was reversing Simon’s conviction and ordering a new trial.[123]
The Florida Supreme Court did not reverse Judge Finley based on the U.S. Constitution’s privilege against self-incrimination. That federal constitutional protection would not apply in Florida courtrooms until 1965, when the U.S. Supreme Court incorporated the Fifth Amendment’s privilege against self-incrimination into state court proceedings through the 14th Amendment’s due process clause.[124] Further, the Florida Supreme Court did not reverse Judge Finley based on the Florida Constitution’s privilege against self-incrimination. Antebellum Florida jurisprudence considered the enslaved to be chattel, and Florida courts did not cloak property with constitutional rights.
Rather, Justice Semmes, writing for the majority,[125] based the Florida Supreme Court’s decision on the common law doctrine that for a confession to be admissible as evidence, the mind of the accused should at the time of the confession be uninfluenced by fear or hope.[126] With respect to Simon’s confession, Justice Semmes noted that there were “few cases to be found in the books where stronger influences were brought to bear on the mind of the prisoner to extort a confession than the one before us. That it was made under the influence of fear or apprehension of personal violence, can scarce be doubted.”[127] Justice Semmes noted that the crowd outside the mayor’s office was clamoring to hang Simon, and Mayor Sierra, who was Simon’s only protection from the crowd, was demanding that Simon confess.[128] Justice Semmes reasoned that if Simon maintained his innocence, he risked alienating Mayor Sierra, which could have resulted in the mayor abandoning him to the crowd.[129] Justice Semmes speculated that in Simon’s mind, a confession was “the only immediate security for his person and his life.”[130] Justice Semmes also focused on the fact that Simon was a slave, and that Simon made his confession in the presence of, and at the urging of, his master.[131] According to Justice Semmes, “the ease with which this class of our population can be intimidated, and the almost absolute control which the owner does involuntarily exercise over the will of the slave, should induce the courts at all times to receive their confessions with the utmost caution and distrust.”[132] Further, Justice Semmes opined that the trial testimony proved that Simon had falsely confessed.[133] Specifically, Justice Semmes noted that when Simon admitted to the burning of Dr. Maxwell’s house, he claimed to have set the fire at the east window on the first floor of the home, and that he had stayed there watching the fire until it blazed up.[134] However, the two defense witnesses who testified at trial stated that the fire had started at the top of the house in the attic.[135] One of these witnesses testified that, as the attic burned, he was located near the ground floor east window where Simon had confessed to starting the fire, but there was no fire there.[136] According to Justice Semmes, “[T]hese witnesses, who are unimpeached, and whose testimony is uncontradicted, establish the fact, that the confessions of the prisoner as to the particulars of the burning were altogether untrue.”[137] As Justice Semmes reasoned, if Simon had been truthfully confessing to arson, he would have had no reason to lie about the location where he had started the fire.[138]
Simon was to get a new trial. Without his coerced confession, it did not appear there was any evidence to convict him.
Yellow Fever Ravages Pensacola
As the Florida Supreme Court was deciding Simon’s case, a yellow fever epidemic was breaking out in Pensacola.[139] The 1853 Pensacola yellow fever epidemic began in July and lasted into October,[140] killing more than 250 men, women, and children.[141] Pensacolians did not realize that it was mosquitos that were transmitting this deadly virus throughout their community.[142] Rather, they assumed that yellow fever was a contagious disease spread among persons by close contact.[143] Based on that misconception, Judge Finley canceled the October 1853 Escambia County Circuit Court term ostensibly in an attempt to avoid person-to-person contact at the courthouse.[144] Simon’s trial, therefore, was postponed until the next Escambia County Circuit Court term, which would not be until June 1854. Though Simon would survive the yellow fever epidemic, he would not live long enough to be retried.
Simon’s Fate
On February 25, 1854, seven months after Simon had won his appeal in the Florida Supreme Court, the Pensacola Gazette published the following news: “The slave Simon, who was convicted last spring of having set fire to the house of Dr. R.T. Maxwell, and whose conviction was reversed by the Florida Supreme Court, died in prison on the 19th [of February].”[145] The Gazette provided no further details concerning the cause of Simon’s death. It’s easy to imagine a scenario in which Simon was murdered. Simon was, after all, in danger of being hanged the night of his interrogation at the mayor’s office. However, other 19th century Florida slaves that prevailed in their appeals were retried.[146] Additionally, if some bad actor had intended to take Simon’s life as vengeance for the arsons, there was no reason to wait nearly 16 months to do it.
A more probable cause for Simon’s death was disease. Since the night of his arrest, Simon was likely held in a two-story, brick structure that Pensacolians referred to as the city’s “prison.” Florida would not build its first penitentiary until after the Civil War,[147] and Pensacola’s “prison” was more like a jail from the Old West. Built in 1836,[148] it was tiny — just 18 feet long and 36 feet wide.[149] Prisoners occupied the first floor, while the jailer’s family resided on the second floor.[150] It had two jail cells that were approximately 15 square feet in size. Each cell had a door and two small windows for ventilation.[151] The prison served as a holding facility for drunken sailors and brawlers, as well as for defendants awaiting trial or execution.[152] Prisoners were shackled around an ankle and chained to a bolt in the floor, a system of confinement that allowed them very little mobility within their cell.[153] It’s likely that Simon had no bed on which to sleep,[154] and that the quality of his food was poor.[155] His cell was likely overcrowded with other prisoners.[156] Further, Simon would have been at the mercy of the winter’s cold and the summer’s heat. At the time of his death in February 1854, Simon had been at the Pensacola prison for approximately 16 months, and it is possible that these harsh conditions made Simon susceptible to an illness that took his life. Regardless of the cause, Simon’s life was lost. Four months after Simon’s death, during the June 1854 term of the Escambia County Circuit Court, the clerk of court called the matter of Simon, A Slave v. State of Florida.[157] Due to Simon’s death, Judge Finley ordered that the case be dismissed.[158]
Simon’s Legacy
Simon’s case has impacted the lives of many Florida defendants. For example, in the 1889 case of Coffee v. State, 25 Fla. 501 (1889), four guards compelled a Marion County murder suspect to confess by placing a noose around his neck, leading him into the woods, and then threatening to hang him. The trial judge, who was none other than the trial judge in Simon’s case — J.J. Finley — admitted the confession into evidence and a jury returned a guilty verdict. Citing Simon’s case, the Florida Supreme Court reversed the conviction. In the 1945 case of Williams v. State, 156 Fla. 300 (1945), Tampa police officers investigating the murder of a store clerk compelled a suspect to confess by questioning him incessantly for 10 hours, forcing him to view the murder victim’s body, and then putting his innocent mother into a jail cell. The trial judge admitted the confession into evidence, and a jury returned a guilty verdict. Citing Simon’s case, the Florida Supreme Court reversed the conviction. In the 2018 case of Wilson v. State, 242 So. 3d 484, 497 (Fla. 2d DCA 2018), Sebring police officers investigating a series of robberies compelled a suspect to confess by threatening him with Florida’s 10-20-life enhancement if he didn’t confess, while also promising him probation if he did confess. The trial judge allowed the confession into evidence and a jury returned a guilty verdict. Citing Simon’s case, the Second District Court of Appeal reversed the defendant’s conviction.
Though the Civil War ended the institution of slavery, and today’s Florida criminal defendants are not confronted with the “choice” of making a false confession or immediate execution, a review of modern Florida caselaw shows that some law enforcement officers still attempt to extract confessions from suspects through threats, promises, or a combination of both.[159] As U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren noted regarding police interrogations over a century after Simon’s death, “[T]he efficiency of the rack and the thumbscrew can be matched, given the proper subject, by more sophisticated means of persuasion.”[160]
Simon, A Slave v. State of Florida serves as a reminder to all participants in the criminal justice system — law enforcement officers, defense attorneys, prosecutors, and judges alike — that we must remain vigilant and guard against confessions that were motivated by threats or promises. As Simon’s case illustrates, such confessions are unreliable, and their admission into evidence is contrary to the fairness that our justice system strives to ensure for all.
[1] Pensacola Gazette (Feb. 25, 1854).
[2] Pensacola Gazette (Oct. 23, 1852). According to a June 1853 Escambia County indictment, this fire took place on Monday, October 18, 1852.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Id. According to a June 1853 Escambia County indictment, this fire took place on Monday, October 20, 1852.
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.
[11] Affidavit of Pensacola Mayor Joseph Sierra (Oct. 23, 1852); Simon, A Slave v. State of Florida, 5 Fla. 285, 291 (1853).
[12] Affidavit of Pensacola Mayor Joseph Sierra (Oct. 23, 1852).
[13] Id.
[14] Id.
[15] Id.
[16] Id.
[17] Daniel L. Schafer, U.S. Territory and State, The History of Florida 220, 236 (1996).
[18] Joseph A. Boyd, Jr. & Randall Reeder, A History of the Florida Supreme Court, 35 U. Miami L. Rev. 1019, 1021 (1980-1981).
[19] Hale R. Stancil, A Little History of Florida, and the Florida Supreme Court, and Judges of Florida’s Fifth Judicial Circuit 2 (2011).
[20] Title II, Ch. 4, Laws of Fla. (1847). The law also provided for the rotation of circuit court judges. Id.
[21] Id.
[22] Id.
[23] U.S. Census Bureau (1850), Florida.
[24] Susan Katcher, Legal Training in the United States: A Brief History, 24 Wis. Int’l L. J. 335, 348 (2006-2007).
[25] Stetson University would open Florida’s first law school in 1900. See Stetson University, History: Florida’s First Law School (Oct. 13, 2018), https://www.stetson.edu/law/about/home/history.php.
[26] Walter W. Manley II, E. Canter Brown, Jr. & Eric W. Rise, The Supreme Court of Florida and its Predecessor Courts, 1821-1917 103 (1997).
[27] Katcher, Legal Training in the United States: A Brief History, 24 Wis. Int’l L. J. at 346 (citing Robert Stevens, Law School: Legal Education in America From the 1850s to the 1980s 26 (1983)).
[28] Id. (citing Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law 237 (3d ed. 2005), citing Beverly Moran, The Wisconsin Diploma Privilege: Try It, You’ll Like It, 2000 Wis. L. Rev. 645, 645-46 (quoting Joel Seligman, Why the Bar Exam Should Be Abolished, Juris Dr. at 48 (Aug./Sept. 1978)).
[29] Id.
[30] Joseph Conan Thompson, Toward a More Humane Oppression: Florida’s Slave Codes, 1821-1861, 71 The Florida Historical Q. 324, 334 (1993).
[31] Manley, Canter Brown & Rise, The Supreme Court of Florida and its Predecessor Courts at 105.
[32] Thompson, Toward a More Humane Oppression: Florida’s Slave Codes, 1821-1861, 71 The Florida Historical Q. at 334-335.
[33] Id.
[34] Fla. Const. art. 1, §10 (1838).
[35] Fla. Const. art. 1, §12 (1838).
[36] Title IV, Ch. 1, Laws of Fla. (1847).
[37] Thompson, Toward a More Humane Oppression: Florida’s Slave Codes, 1821-1861, 71 The Florida Historical Q. at 333.
[38] Title IV, Ch. 1, Laws of Fla. (1847).
[39] Thompson, Toward a More Humane Oppression: Florida’s Slave Codes, 1821-1861, 71 The Florida Historical Q. at 334-335.
[40] See Daniel J. Flanigan, Criminal Procedure in Slave Trials in the Antebellum South, 40 J. of Southern History 537, 547 (1974).
[41] Title IV, Ch. 1, Laws of Fla. (1847).
[42] Id.
[43] Id.
[44] Id.
[45] Id.
[46] Id.
[47] See Simon, A Slave v. State of Florida, 5 Fla. 285, 292 (1853). The extant Escambia County Clerk’s records do not identify Simon’s attorney. However, the Florida Supreme Court’s decision states that an attorney with the surname of Campbell represented Simon in the trial court and before the Florida Supreme Court. Given that Richard Lewis Campbell’s law office was located in Pensacola, and given the small size of the Florida legal community at that time, the author concludes that attorney Campbell represented Simon.
[48] Pat Dodson, Introduction, Historical Sketches of Colonial Florida, A Facsimile Production of the 1892 Edition xiii, xvi (1975).
[49] Id. at xviii.
[50] Id.
[51] Id.
[52] Id. at xxi.
[53] Bill of Sale for the Enslaved Man Ben, February 1, 1858; Transfer by Richard Lewis Campbell to James Gonzalez.
[54] Secession in Florida-Pensacola on Its Own Documents, Letters and Other Papers, 26 The Florida Historical Quarterly 283, 297 (1948).
[55] Id.; see also Samuel Proctor, Preface, Historical Sketches of Colonial Florida, A Facsimile Production of the 1892 Edition vii (1975).
[56] The Pensacola Gazette (June 25, 1853).
[57] 1 Edmund Ruffin, The Diary of Edmund Ruffin 525 (1972)
[58] Hale R. Stancil, A Little History of Florida, and the Florida Supreme Court, and Judges of Florida’s Fifth Judicial Circuit 4-5 (2011); see also Florida Governors, Thomas Brown (Oct. 19, 2018), https://dos.myflorida.com/florida-facts/florida-history/florida-governors/thomas-brown/.
[59] Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, Jesse Johnson Finley (1812-1904) (Dec. 12, 2018), http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=F000134.
[60] Id.
[61] See Coffee v. State, 25 Fla. 501 (1889).
[62] The Mayors of Memphis, Jesse J. Finely (Oct. 19, 2018), http://historic-memphis.com/biographies/mayors/mayors.html.
[63] Escambia County Clerk of Court Records (June 17, 1853).
[64] Id.; see also Title II, Ch. 2, Laws of Fla. (1847).
[65] Escambia County Clerk of Court Records (June 17, 1853).
[66] Id.
[67] Simon, 5 Fla. at 286.
[68] Id.
[69] Id. at 287.
[70] Id. at 288.
[71] Id. at 286-287.
[72] Id. at 287.
[73] Id.
[74] Id.
[75] Id.
[76] Id.
[77] Id. at 288.
[78] Id. at 287.
[79] Id.
[80] Id. at 289.
[81] Id. at 290.
[82] Id.
[83] Id.
[84] Id.
[85] U.S. Census Bureau (1850), Florida.
[86] Simon, 5 Fla. at 290-291.
[87] Id.
[88] Id. at 291.
[89] Id.
[90] Id.
[91] Florida statutes directed that the English common law be in force in the Florida courts. See Title I, Ch. 6, Laws of Fla. (1847).
[92] Simon, 5 Fla. at 291.
[93] Escambia County Clerk of Court Records (June 17, 1853).
[94] Id.
[95] Id.
[96] Escambia County Clerk of Court Records (June 18, 1853).
[97] Id.
[98] Id.
[99] Id.
[100] Manley, Canter Brown & Rise, The Supreme Court of Florida and Its Predecessor Courts at 152; see also Mary Agnes Thursby, Succession of Justices of Supreme Court of Florida (Nov. 4, 2018), http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/pub_info/documents/appointed.pdf.
[101] Id.
[102] Manley, Canter Brown & Rise, The Supreme Court of Florida and its Predecessor Courts, 1821-1917 at 148-153.
[103] Dodson, Introduction, Historical Sketches of Colonial Florida, A Facsimile Production of the 1892 Edition at xviii.
[104] Id. at xxi.
[105] Manley, Canter Brown & Rise, The Supreme Court of Florida and its Predecessor Courts, 1821-1917 at 145-146.
[106] Id. at 146-148.
[107] Id. at 147,152; see also 1850 U.S. Federal Census, Slave Schedules, Franklin County, Florida.
[108] In Heirs of Bryan v. Dennis, et al., 4 Fla. 445, 454 (1852), Justice Semmes wrote that the emancipation of Florida slaves was “an evil of the most dangerous character.” In Luke, A Slave v. State of Florida, 5 Fla. 185, 195 (1853), Justice Thomson wrote that “the superiority of the white or Caucasian race over the African negro should ever be demonstrated and preserved” and that “the degraded caste should be continually reminded of their inferior position.”
[109] Minutes of the Supreme Court of the State of Florida at Marianna, Florida (July 13-14, 1853).
[110] 1 Joseph Chitty, A Practical Treatise on the Criminal Law §570 (1819).
[111] Rey v. Warwickshall, 1 Leach 263 (1783).
[112] 2 Charles Sprengel Greaves, A Treatise on Crimes and Misdemeanors §826 (1850).
[113] Serpentine v. State, 1 Howard 256 (1835).
[114] Id.
[115] Id.
[116] Id.
[117] Id.
[118] Id.
[119] Id.
[120] Minutes of the Supreme Court of the State of Florida at Marianna, Florida (July 13-14, 1853).
[121] Minutes of the Supreme Court of the State of Florida at Marianna, Florida (July 25, 1853).
[122] Id.
[123] Id.
[124] Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. 1 (1964).
[125] Justice Thompson joined Justice Semmes in the majority, while Chief Justice Wright dissented.
[126] Simon, 5 Fla. at 296.
[127] Id. at 297.
[128] Id.
[129] Id.
[130] Id. Regarding Simon’s alleged second confession that Mayor Sierra testified had taken place at the jail, Justice Semmes held that it had been provoked by the same fear that had motivated Simon’s statements at the mayor’s office. Id. at 298.
[131] Id. at 298.
[132] Id.
[133] Id. at 299.
[134] Id. at 298.
[135] Id.
[136] Id.
[137] Id. at 298-299.
[138] Id. at 299.
[139] George F. Pearce, Torment of Pestilence: Yellow Fever Epidemics in Pensacola, 56 The Florida Historical Q. 448, 445 (1978).
[140] Id.
[141] Tomb Inscription, Tomb of Francis Commyns, St. Michael’s Cemetery, Pensacola, Florida.
[142] Pearce, Torment of Pestilence: Yellow Fever Epidemics in Pensacola, 56 The Florida Historical Q. at 450.
[143] Id. at 455.
[144] Escambia County Clerk of Court Records (Oct. 1853).
[145] Pensacola Gazette (Feb. 25, 1854).
[146] For an example, see the case of Isaac. Jonathan Walker, Trial and Imprisonment of Jonathan Walker 21-22 (1854).
[147] Florida Department of Corrections, Florida Corrections Centuries of Progress (1821-1845).
[148] Matthew J. Clavin, The Floor Was Stained with the Blood of a Slave — Crime and Punishment in the Old South, Buried Lives, Incarcerated in Early America 259, 265 (2012).
[149] Walker, Trial and Imprisonment of Jonathan Walker at 18.
[150] Id.
[151] Id.
[152] Clavin, The Floor Was Stained with the Blood of a Slave — Crime and Punishment in the Old South, Buried Lives, Incarcerated in Early America at 262.
[153] Id. at 267.
[154] Walker, Trial and Imprisonment of Jonathan Walker at 17.
[155] Id. at 20.
[156] Id. at 127.
[157] Escambia County Clerk of Court Records (June 15, 1854).
[158] Id. There were two indictments pending against Simon: one for arson and one for setting fire to a dwelling house. Judge Finley ordered that both cases abate.
[159] Bussey v. State, 184 So. 3d 1183 (Fla. 2d DCA 2015); Chambers v. State, 965 So. 2d 376 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007); Squire v. State, 193 So. 3d 105 (Fla. 4th DCA 2016); Samuel v. State, 898 So. 2d 233 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005); Edwards v. State, 793 So. 2d 1044 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001); Vanevery v. State, 980 So. 2d 1105 (Fla. 4th DCA 2008).
[160] Blackburn v. Alabama, 361 U.S. 199, 206 (1960).