Praecipe in People v. Furrow & Rice, [Law papers].

Summary: Furrow and Rice stole Deck's horse. The state's attorney indicted Furrow and Rice for larceny, and Furrow and Rice retained Lincoln and pleaded not guilty. The jury found Furrow and Rice guilty and sentenced them to one year in the penitentiary. Furrow and Rice motioned for a new trial because one of the jurors was mentally incompetent, but the court denied the motion. Someone notified Judge Davis that a witness who had testified that he was an accomplice in the larceny had recanted. The witness claimed that two men threatened his life and coerced him into implicating Furrow and Rice. Judge Davis, State's Attorney Campbell, and one of the defendants' attorneys wrote to Governor French and asked him to pardon Furrow and Rice based on the new evidence. The jurors and hundreds of citizens of Vermilion County signed petitions for Furrow and Rice's release. Although Lincoln did not sign the petition for pardon, he and State's Attorney Campbell were to present the petitions to the governor and "state the facts as to the conviction." Whether Governor French pardoned Furrow and Rice is unknown.