Pool was arrested in March 1855 and indicted for stealing a slave belonging to James Hollingshead. The prisoner moved for a continuance on the grounds that local public opinion was overwhelmingly ranged against him and that there were two witnesses, one elsewhere in Georgia and one in Alabama, by whom he could demonstrate that he had been in Alabama at the time of the theft. An officer of the court was despatched to find the two witnesses, and in time returned to say that he could find no word of them. The court overruled the move for a continuance and Pool's counsel excepted. The Supreme Court upheld the verdict.
