Case ID: del_4/html/0582-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

THE STATE vs. JAMES HARTEN.
    Discharge on a petition for freedom, founded on the illegal exportation of petitioner by his master, is evidence of his freedom, on an indictment for kidnapping him.
    The general reputation of a kidnapper is evidence of the intent with which defendant aided him in carrying off a free negro.
    Kent,
    October term, 1847.
    On the trial of James Harten, who was indicted with Jacob R. Griffin and others, for kidnapping one Peter Howard, a free negro, with a count for aiding and assisting Griffin to kidnap, it was ruled,
    1st. That the record of Peter Howard’s discharge on a petition for freedom filed against his former master for selling him out of the State, was sufficient evidence of his being a free negro.
    2d. That the general reputation of Jacob R. Griffin as a kidnapper might be given in evidence, to show the intent with which the defendant aided him in binding and carrying off the said Howard.
   The defendant was convicted.