In 1824, an indictment for murder was found in Kentucky against a
son of the Governor. The case was one which excited great public
interest, and was talked over from one end of the State to the
other. The result was that when the trial came on it was found
impossible, term after term, to make up a jury of men who, from
what they had heard or read, had not formed what the defense
claimed and the court thought to be a sufficiently firm opinion
as to the guilt or innocence of the accused to justify their
exclusion. The legislature was finally appealed to for relief
and passed a statute that an opinion formed from mere rumor
should not be a ground of challenge. The case was then, in 1827,
taken up for the ninth time, but with the same result, whereupon
the defendant's father gave him a pardon, on the ground that "the
prospect of obtaining a jury is entirely hopeless," and that he
had "no doubt of his being innocent of the foul
charges."[Footnote: Niles' Register, XXXII, 357, 405; XXXVIII,
336.]

When a capital case is coming on, great pains will often be taken
by the prisoner's counsel to ascertain the characteristics and
disposition toward his client of each of the jurors who have been
summoned to court. This has sometimes been carried to the extent
of trickery, particularly in some of the Southern States. Agents
have been sent over the county to see every man capable of jury
service. There is some ostensible reason given for the call. He
is perhaps asked to buy a photograph of the accused; perhaps to
contribute to a fund to provide him with counsel. This naturally
leads to some expression of opinion in regards to the charge made
against him, and if the man thus "interviewed" should be