pardon from him. When Beauchamp finished the confession in mid-June 1826, his uncle, Senator Beauchamp, took it to the state printer for immediate publication. An Old Court supporter, the printer refused to publish it. Anna Beauchamp joined her husband in his cell in the dungeon; the only entry was through a trap door at the top of the room. During their incarceration, they tried to bribe a guard into allowing them to escape. When that failed, they tried to pass a letter to Senator Beauchamp asking for help to escape, an attempt which likewise failed. Both the senator and the younger Beauchamp asked for a pardon from Governor Desha, but to no avail. Beauchamp's final request to Desha for a stay of execution was rejected July 5, 1826. With the last hope exhausted, the couple attempted a double suicide by drinking a vial of laudanum which Anna had smuggled into the cell. Both survived. The following morning, Jereboam and Anna were put on suicide watch and threatened with separation. The night before the execution, Anna took a second dose of laudanum but was unable to keep it down. On July 7, 1826, the morning of the scheduled execution, Anna asked the guard to give her privacy to dress. Once the guard left, Anna revealed to Beauchamp that she had smuggled in a knife, and she and her husband stabbed themselves. Anna was taken to a nearby house to be treated by doctors. Too weak to stand or walk, Beauchamp was loaded onto a cart to be conveyed to the gallows. He begged to see Anna, but the guards told him she was not seriously injured. The guards finally allowed him to see Anna, and Beauchamp was angered that they had underplayed her critical condition. He stayed with her until he could no longer feel her pulse; then the guards took him to the gallows to be hanged before he died of his stab wounds. Beauchamp asked to see Patrick Darby, who was among the assembled 5,000 spectators. Beauchamp smiled and offered his hand, but Darby declined the gesture. Beauchamp publicly denied that Darby had any involvement with Sharp's murder, but accused him of having lied about their 1824 meeting. Darby denied the death march accusation and tried to get Beauchamp to retract it, but the prisoner was moved on to the gallows. Two men supported Beauchamp as the noose was