Where can I find the source of "I perish today not because of the crime I committed, but because of the pardon I did not accept"?

From a sermon illustration: That quote was the last words of a young man in southern USA (18th century), who was sentenced to be hung for a crime, whose family had interceded with the governor. The governor took a pardon enclosed in a Bible to the young man. But the young man refused anything religious, the Bible, and his unknown visitor.