About forty slaves belonging to William Giles were arrested on suspicion of murder. One of their number, Willis, was committed to Chatham county jail by the magistrates. No evidence was brought forth against the others and so they were ordered to be discharged on the payment of their jail fees and the costs of their examination by Giles, their master; he excepted to these charges. The lower court upheld the charge of the costs to Giles on the basis that the prosecutor (the alternative source for payment of the costs) had acted in good faith. The Supreme Court reversed this decision on the grounds that the imposition of costs by a court on the master of arrested slaves against whom no evidence had been found was an abuse of the court's discretion.
