The Judicial Murder of Mary E. Surratt [1895] - Hardcover

David Miller Dewitt

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1584773529 ISBN 13: 9781584773528

Publisher: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 2003

Synopsis

Mary Surratt was the first woman tried and executed by the United States. She owned and ran a boardinghouse in Washington, D.C. where John Wilkes Booth and other conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln often met. She was tried and convicted of complicity in Abraham Lincoln's assassination and hanged on July 7, 1865. Though current scholarship indicates otherwise, many writers have portrayed her as an innocent victim of a vengeful military tribunal that did not have the right to try her for her involvement in the assassination plot. Two events supported this view. One was the 1866 Supreme Court decision Ex parte Milligan, which invalidated the authority of military courts to try civilians in places where civil courts were functioning. Ambiguity concerning military and civil authority in Washington, D.C. in 1865 raised questions about the legality of her trial. The other event was the trial of her co-conspirator son, John Surratt, before a civil jury in 1867, two years after her death. Surratt's testimony was similar to that of his mother. When his trial ended in a hung jury, it seemed to many that the military court had executed an innocent woman.

About this title

About the Author:

David Miller De Witt (November 25, 1837 June 23, 1912) was a U.S. Representative from New York. Born in Paterson, New Jersey, De Witt moved to New York in 1845 with his parents, who settled in Brooklyn. He attended the public schools of Brooklyn, a select school at Saugerties, and the local academy at Kingston. He was graduated from Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1858. He studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1858 and commenced practice in Kingston, New York. Principal of New Paltz Academy (later a State normal school) in 1861 and 1862. He served as district attorney of Ulster County 1863 1870. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection. De Witt was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-third Congress (March 4, 1873 March 3, 1875). He was not a candidate for renomination. He resumed the practice of law and also engaged in literary pursuits. He served as assistant corporation counsel of Brooklyn, New York from 1878 to 1881. He was a member of the New York State Assembly (Ulster Co., 2nd D.) in 1883. Corporation counsel of Kingston in 1884. Surrogate of Ulster County from November 20, 1885, to December 31, 1886. He again engaged in the practice of law. He died in Kingston, New York, June 23, 1912. He was interred in Wiltwyck Rural Cemetery.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1584773529
• ISBN 13: 9781584773528
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 259