[1] It describes the negative and racially prejudiced light in which her early life was presented to the court, referring to her Native American mother as an "abandoned creature", and characterizing Ocuish as a fearsome violent criminal who at the age of 6 nearly killed another victim during a robbery of a gold necklace and clothing: AS the Public may wish to be informed more particularly respecting the criminal, Hannah Ocuish, than they have yet been: we have collected the following particulars, which it may not be improper to annex as an appendix to the preceding discourse.

Their mother, who is one of the Pequot tribe of indians, is an abandoned creature, much addicted to the vice of drunkenness.—She, it seems, not liking to have the girl bound out; brought her away and left her at a house, about three miles from the city of New-London, promising to return in a few days and take her away again.

—In short, her mind wanted to be properly instructed, and her disposition to be corrected.The victim, six-year-old Eunice Bolles, the daughter of a wealthy farmer, was found dead on July 21, 1786.

Karen Halttunen, a history professor at the University of California at Davis, summarized the crime:[7][8] On the 21st of July, 1786, at about 10 o'clock in the morning, the body of the murdered child was found in the public road leading from New-London to Norwich, lying on its face near to a wall ...

When a search failed to turn them up, Hannah was interrogated again, and then taken to the Bolles home to be charged with homicide in the presence of the dead child.

Catching sight of her young enemy headed for school one morning, Hannah had lured Eunice from her path with a gift of calico, then beat and choked her to death.One day after the murder, Ocuish was accused of killing Bolles and allegedly confessed.

[5] During Ocuish's trial, she pleaded "not guilty" at the direction of defense counsel[1]: 30  and seemed unfazed and calm while the rest of those present, including presiding judge Richard Law, were brought to tears multiple times.

Although Ocuish's youth was considered, it could not be a mitigating factor, so the judge decided: "The sparing of you on account of your age would, as the law says, be of dangerous consequence to the public, by holding up an idea, that children might commit such atrocious crimes with impunity."

While the NAACP-assembled group has cautioned that they may not be able to reach a conclusion, if evidence favors Ocuish's innocence or her receiving an unfair trial, it will be decided whether or not to recommend an exoneration to the Connecticut General Assembly.

[2] In a 2023 opinion piece for OddFeed, writer Jessica Suess described reasonable doubt for Hannah Ocuish having committed the murder of Bolles.