Dallas County AlArchives News.....Joseph Noles Convicted of Murdering George T. Sharpe, May 27, 1854
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Larry C. Knowles http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00012.html#0002854 November 17, 2010, 10:29 pm

Alabama Weekly Journal May 27, 1854

“Convicted”-Weekly Alabama Journal-May 27 1854, Montgomery, AL-[see notes below]

“CONVICTED--We learn from the Cahaba Gazette, that Joseph Noles was tried on 
Wednesday last in Cahaba, Dallas county, on the charge of murdering George T. 
Sharpe, in February 1853, and convicted of murder in the first degree, with the 
death penalty. The victim was acting at the time of the murder as special 
constable, and in company with several others proceeded to the house of the 
culprit for the purpose of arresting him under a warrant sued out by his wife 
against him for assault and battery, and for having incestuous intercourse with 
his own daughter. As the party approached the house, the prisoner rushed out 
with a gun in his hand, and cried out, 'stand your ground, gentlemen, or I will 
shoot". The party immediately stopped, and the deceased sprang from his horse, 
when the prisoner deliberately shot him down and he died upon the spot. Nules 
fled-was afterwards arrested in Dooly county Ga., and brought back to stand his 
trial for the offense. We have not learned the period fixed for his execution.

We also learn from a gentleman just from Dallas, that a negro man slave has 
also convicted of the crime of arson, the penalty for which is death, by the 
law. We understand that when the verdict was read, the prisoner fainted away, 
but was soon restored. His value was assessed at $2,000 -being an excellent 
blacksmith. We are not informed of the day of execution.”
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These articles, attributed to the Cahaba Gazette, were published on the date 
shown. The warrant noted was only a “peace warrant” sworn out by the 
defendant’s wife. No record regarding incest was found in any of the legal 
records. A technicality in the warrant’s wording resulted in a second trial in 
Dallas Co., where Noles was again convicted, and then sentenced to life in the 
penitentiary. Transcripts of two appeals to the Alabama Supreme Court are on 
this site; as is an unused “Extradition Paper” for would be bounty hunters. A 
brief newspaper item-[unrecorded here]-noted that Joseph Noles, and another 
prisoner, Henry Harrell, where transported to the penitentiary by the Dallas 
Co. sheriff in March 1855. Somehow, Joseph Noles “escaped”. He was in Claiborne 
Parish, LA in 1860, and moved to Navarro Co. TX by 1870, where he died in 1907. 
For more on the story see: Knowles In Georgia: http//members.tripod.com/knonga  

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