But Phineas Copenny made no motion for a new trial and desired no
appeal. He had feared, throughout, the possible capture and conclusive
testimony of Drann and Holvey, and, lest a worse thing befall him, he
accepted a sentence of a long term in the penitentiary. In view of the
turpitude of "lying in wait," though a matter of inference and not proof,
he doubted the saving grace of that anomaly of the Tennessee law that in
order to constitute murder in the first degree the victim of a
premeditated slaughter must be the person intended to be slain.
There was scant doubt as to his guilt in the minds of the jury. The boy
singled out Copenny from a crowd in which he had been placed to test his
recognition by the little witness. He remembered the man's name, and
called him by it. He gave an excited account of the shooting, although
this was the least intelligible part of his testimony, for he often
interrupted himself to exclaim, "Pop-gun--_bang!_" disconnectedly, as
the scene renewed itself in his memory.
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