Samuel Mudd - Trial

Trial

After Booth's death (April 26, 1865), Mudd was arrested and charged with conspiracy to murder Abraham Lincoln.

On May 1, 1865, President Andrew Johnson ordered the formation of a nine-man military commission to try the conspirators. Mudd was represented by General Thomas Ewing, Jr.. The trial began on May 10, 1865. Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, David Herold, Samuel Mudd, Michael O'Laughlen, Edmund Spangler and Samuel Arnold were all charged with conspiring to murder Lincoln. The prosecution called 366 witnesses.

The defense sought to prove that Mudd was a loyal citizen, citing his self-description as a "Union man" and asserting that he was "a deeply religious man, devoted to family, and a kind master to his slaves". The prosecution presented witnesses who testified that he had shot one of his slaves in the leg, and threatened to send others to Richmond, Virginia to assist in the construction of Confederate defenses. The prosecution also contended that he had been a member of a Confederate communications distribution agency and had sheltered Confederate soldiers on his plantation.

On June 29, 1865, Mudd was found guilty with the others. The testimony of Louis J. Weichmann was crucial in obtaining the convictions. According to the historian Edward Steers, the testimony presented by former slaves was also crucial, although it faded from public memory. Mudd escaped the death penalty by one vote and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Four of the defendants, Surratt, Powell, Atzerodt and Herold, were hanged at the Old Penitentiary at the Washington Arsenal on July 7, 1865.