Mary Surratt's Assassination Punishment

Mary Surratt's connection with Lincoln’s assassin resulted in her being hanged. Her crime was helping him with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. However, Mary Surratt’s punishment was far more severe than her crime. The reasons being, Mary may have known about the kidnapping, but it is very unlikely she knew about the assassination plot. Also, during her trial, information was withheld due to Stanton’s personal persona, this evidence wasn’t realised until two years after Mary was hanged. The last reason why the punishment did not fit the crime is Dr. Mudd received less of a punishment when in fact, he helped John Wilkes Booth more than Mary. Even Though Mary likely knew about the kidnapping, it was unlikely she knew about the assassination. This is because Booth wanted to keep it very unknown and he could not risk …show more content…
Stanton, major a detective that was called in after the assassination, knew about this journal and kept it during the trial and did not release it until two years after. Ordinarily this would be released, but Stanton had a reason for convicting Mary. In an article written about Mary Surratt, according to Stanton he said he would “hunt down the guilty”. Stanton had such a desire to convict someone he withheld evidence that held the truth. If Mary was a truly major part in this assassination, she would have been mentioned in the journal. According to many people, Mary Surratt is guilty and deserved the punishment. Her innocence failed her when John Lloyd testified against her. Mary had brought over a box for unknown visitors. She also told him that she would like him to get two shooting irons ready that was previously brought by her son. I find this to be faulty because she could have not known the contents of the box. She also could not have known who she was getting the shooting irons