His case was the subject of considerable attention by those opposed to the death penalty, resulting in over 24,000 signatures on petitions for clemency to Massachusetts governor George N. Briggs.
His trial was presided over by Justice Lemuel Shaw who the following year would sentence Professor John White Webster to death for the murder of Harvard Medical School benefactor, George Parkman, another trial that would capture Boston's imagination and blur the lines of distinction between opponents and advocates of capital punishment.
He made a desperate attempt the night previous to commit suicide by cutting the veins of his arm with glass, and swallowing tobacco and tarred rope.
Goode reportedly fought for General Zachary Taylor who would eventually become the twelfth president of the United States in the Florida war.
As it was a capital case, it was tried before the Supreme Judicial Court presided over by Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, one of the most influential jurists in nineteenth-century America.
The two attorneys argued that their client was innocent, denouncing the testimony of the prosecution's witnesses and casting doubt on the circumstantial evidence presented by Samuel Parker.
The jury deliberated for only thirty-five minutes before finding Goode guilty of murder and on January 15, 1849 he was sentenced to death by Chief Justice Shaw.
Those volunteering to serve on the committee included his attorneys Aspinwall and Hodges, as well as Wendell Phillips, Walter Channing, Samuel May, Robert Rantoul, Jr., James Freeman Clarke and Frederick Douglass, among other politicians, ministers and reformers.
In The Liberator Garrison argued that the verdict relied on "circumstantial evidence of the most flimsy character..." and feared that the determination of the government to uphold its decision to execute Goode was based on race.
Parker Pillsbury also used the pages of a prominent newspaper, the Semi-Weekly Republican as well as The Liberator to plead for commutation of Goode's sentence.
The activists involved in the protest relied heavily on the question of race to play a large role in saving Goode from the gallows.
As no person had been hanged in Boston since 1836, those opposed to the death penalty thought this showed a shift in the public's attitude away from capital punishment.
The sheriff then read the warrant signed by the Governor after which the trap door sprang open and Goode plunged several feet.