Bass v. State

The record in this cause is the most remarkable of any we have had occasion to consider.

Nine negroes were brought before us upon a document purporting to be a transcript of the record from the Criminal Court of Rutherford county; from which it appears that eight of them were sentenced to ten years imprisonment in the penitentiary, and one of them (Allen Eondley, colored), to five years. The novelty of the cases arises upon the following certificates by the former and present clerks, viz.:

“On Saturday, January 22, 1870, there appears the judgment (page 13), of the court, in which it says:…