All cases of every kind that are on the docket of the circuit court of the petitioning county at the date of the Governor’s proclamation aforesaid, shall be transferred by the clerk of the circuit court of the adjoining county to the docket of the circuit court of that county; and all criminal cases so transferred shall be tried by a jury drawn in the manner provided by law from the qualified jurors residing within the limits of the territory that had constituted the petitioning county before the proclamation aforesaid, unless the defendant in any such criminal case shall consent in open court to be tried by a jury of the adjoining county.