Unfortunately, there was little sympathy in Pensacola among the legal profession. Responses to Walker's query for legal aid went unanswered for weeks, only to be answered with righteous indignation. Walker had taken an unpopular stand in the midst of slave territory and the residents would remind him of that act.
An Abolition group in Boston attempted to secure legal aid as well. Alas, it was to no avail. Walker entered the courtroom on November 11 without the presence of a defense attorney. Walker was offered the choice of three attorneys present in the courtroom, but Walker asked for an extension, hoping that a private attorney would come through. A delay was granted to the 14th. of November. Although Walker sought a speedy trial, he also realized he would be better represented by a lawyer from Boston than by one from Pensacola. In the end Walker accepted the services of a lawyer, Benjamin Drake Wright, who had earlier spurned Walker out of indignation. Walker and Wright entered the courtroom on November 14th. to stand trial for what the state considered a crime-stealing another man's slave. Walker, as most abolitionists at the time believed, felt he committed no crime, that no man should "own" another man.
Walker Anderson was the U.S. attorney bringing the case against Walker. Walker was charged with four counts. An interested point made by Walker biographer Alvin Oickle is that Walker was charged only with stealing four of the slaves, not all seven. Also, the slaves are not charged in the indictment. By the time Walker's trial started, one slave had died and the remaining six were back in the custody of their "owners."
Oickle also points out the difference in language: Walker was charged with aiding and assisting one slave's escape, enticing another slave, and stealing a third. Oickle's theory is that aiding and assisting was in regard to the slave who originally asked for help; stealing was in regard to slaves who simply showed up that evening and Walker could have refused passage. Another theory (mine) is that a jury could pick and choose which charge they would find Walker guilty of. The jury could find Walker guilty of a lesser crime or of a greater crime. And if the trial was overturned on a technicality, and Walker couldn't by law be tried again, there would always be three more charges that could be levied against Walker.
