...Mary Surratt, a forty two year old widow had been accused of murdering, Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States. She was the mother of Anna Surratt and John Harrison Surratt, a confederate secret agent. Along with being a boardinghouse owner she was also innocent. By using the sources Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson, the movie The Conspirator, and “ Lincoln and the Writ of Liberty” it can be concluded that the death punishment given to Surratt was not reasonable. She was simply accused because her son was a friend to Booth, therefore convincing many people that she was guilty. It was unfair for Surratt to be punished yet despite having her lawyer, Frederick Aiken, she lost the case and pleaded guilty. Till this day people are uncertain whether or not the punishment Mary Surratt received was reasonable, well it was not. The main reason Mary...
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...Mary Surratt: Accomplice or Innocent Bystander Mary Surratt was a woman of many firsts. She was the first woman to ever be executed by the United States federal government. Her crime was suspected involvement in the first United States President assassination. This is better known as President Lincoln’s assassination by John Wilkes Booth. But how much did she really know about the scheme? Was she an accomplice to Booth, like many others including her son, or was she an innocent bystander who accidently got involved with assassins? Many people have heard of the John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln’s shooter, but few have heard of the people behind the scenes of the assassination. Some of the people suspected to be involved included Lewis...
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