This week, associate editor Nicole Polisar revisits the 1865 military trial of Mary E. Surratt, the first woman executed by the United States government. Set in the immediate aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, the episode reconstructs the courtroom’s drama surrounding a civilian defendant tried by a military commission during a moment of national trauma. Nicole examines the prosecution’s theory of treasonable conspiracy, the defense’s constitutional challenge to military jurisdiction, and the role of circumstantial evidence in securing a death sentence. The episode explores how wartime fear reshaped the boundaries of due process, executive power, and civilian justice and why the legal questions raised by Mary Surratt’s execution continue to resonate in modern debates over emergency authority and the rule of law.
If you're interested in this week's topic, please check out these resources:
https://lincolnconspirators.com/the-trial/
https://andyreiter.com/wp-content/uploads/military-justice/us/Government%20Documents/United%20States%20-%201865%20-%20The%20Assassination%20of%20President%20Lincoln%20and%20the%20Trial%20of%20the%20Conspirators.pdf
https://www.famous-trials.com/lincoln/2178-defenseofsurratt
