querry to AI: when Lincoln was shot was procedure was used to bring justice
the answer (Goggle AI)
AI Overview
After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, his successor, President Andrew Johnson, ordered that the alleged conspirators be tried by a
military tribunal, not a civilian court. This decision was controversial because civilian courts were operating in Washington D.C. at the time. Federal authorities argued the assassination was an act of war due to Washington, D.C., being a war zone during the ongoing Civil War. Opponents, however, advocated for a civilian trial, believing it would be fairer.
The military commission consisted of nine Union military officers. The trial, held on the third floor of Washington's Old Arsenal Penitentiary (now Fort McNair) lasted seven weeks in May and June 1865. In contrast to civilian trials, where a unanimous verdict is typically required, a guilty verdict in this military tribunal only required a majority vote (five of the nine judges), and a death sentence required a two-thirds majority (six votes). The accused were represented by attorneys but were not allowed to testify on their own behalf.
Ultimately, the commission found seven of the eight conspirators guilty of conspiracy to assassinate the president. Four of them - Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt - were sentenced to death by hanging and executed on July 7, 1865. The remaining four received varying prison sentences: Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlen were sentenced to life in prison with hard labor, while Edman Spangler received a six-year sentence. President Johnson later pardoned Mudd, Arnold, and Spangler in 1869. John Surratt, who fled the country, was later captured and tried in a civilian court, but the jury could not reach a verdict.