Why Is Mary Surratt Unfair

Mary Surratt was accused of conspiring to kill all important to political figures to attempt to collapse the government and of accommodating the other conspirators. However, the attempt to bring justice has been unfair in itself. The two most powerful and damaging testimonies against Mary Surratt came from Louis Weichmann, a boarder in her house, and John Lloyd, a man renting her tavern. Weichmann told the court that Mary Surratt and John Wilkes Booth used to hold private meetings, which he found suspicious. Some after Surratt died, Weichmann revealed the government forced him to testify, and Mary Surratt was innocent. In his first questioning, John Lloyd did not reveal that Booth and Herold, who were wanted and on the run at that time, came to tavern. Afterwards, he mentioned …show more content…
After Mary Surratt’s death sentence was decided, five members of the military commission who found her guilty created a petition requesting clemency and a lifetime sentence for Surratt instead of hanging. Then, they gave it to Secretary of War Edward Stanton, who supposedly delivered it to President Johnson to review. However, the president said he never saw the petition for leniency, and Stanton tells the commission that only the original sentences have been approved of. Part of the conspiracy lies here, for individuals believe someone, possibly Stanton, the president, Holt, or all of them, tried to suppress the conspirators’ rights by lying about what happened to the petition. Still trying to save her, Mary Surratt’s lawyers file a writ of habeas corpus to try to get her a civilian trial. The writ states that as a private citizen of the United States, Mary Surratt is entitled to a civilian trial; and the current military trial is unwarranted, making the verdict unlawful (Turner). The writ is sent to the president, who responds by suspending the right of habeas corpus for the