Comments on: He’d been known to escape houses through the keyhole http://www.appalachianhistory.net/2011/10/hed-been-known-to-escape-houses-through.html Stories, quotes and anecdotes. Mon, 17 Jun 2013 11:31:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: particle_person http://www.appalachianhistory.net/2011/10/hed-been-known-to-escape-houses-through.html#comment-419405 particle_person Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:30:59 +0000 http://www.appalachianhistory.net/2008/10/hed-been-known-to-escape-houses-through-the-keyhole/#comment-419405 There’s more to the story — Stout indicted persons responsible for his arrest:

Stout, on the other hand, went before the grand jury and indicted a number of persons concerned in his arrest, for assault and battery. When these cases came on to be heard before Judge Caruthers and a jury of the county, the defendants admitted the assault and battery and justified on the ground that it was committed in arresting a felon, relying on the statutes of Henry VIII. and James I., making witchcraft a felony, which they declared had never been repealed in this State. The enlightened Judge, however, charged the jury that they were “destructive of, repugnant to, or inconsistent with the freedom and independence of this State, and form of government,” and were never in force here by virtue of the act of 1778, and the defendants were accordingly convicted.

(From the same source as the above.)

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