Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, LLP - 425 Lexington
Avenue, New York, NY 10017
November 19, 2015 at 5:30 p.m.
1.5 credits
THE MILITARY TRIAL OF THE LINCOLN CONSPIRATORS: WAS
JUSTICE SERVED?
In 1865, eight defendants were tried before a Military
Commission for conspiring to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln
and other high government officials. The Historical Trial
Team will present a reenactment of this trial. We will focus
primarily on the evidence concerning two defendants whose guilt or
innocence is still being argued today - Mary Surratt, who owned the
boarding house at which the conspiracy was plotted, and Dr. Samuel
Mudd, who set John Wilkes Booth's broken leg after the
assassination.
This program is timely both because 2015 marks the 150th
anniversary of the end of the Civil War, and because disputes
concerning the limits of military jurisdiction are still being
litigated in the Guantanamo cases. A panel discussion
following the trial reenactment will discuss whether the Lincoln
conspirators were properly tried before a military rather than a
civilian court in 1865, and the implications of their case for
today.
Program Materials:
Case
Citations