> Date: Sun, 3 Apr 1994 18:37:41 ECT
> From: peter c holloran <pch@world.std.com>
> Subject: Re: The Appeal of Dr. Mudd
>
> Could someone please summarize the court's decision in this case for us?
Of which court are you speaking?
Last year at the University of Richmond, the moot court decided that
Mudd's conviction by the Hunter Commission was unlawful and ought to
be reversed. Judges Re and Everett agreed that the U.S. Constitution
did not permit a military court to try a civilian given the
circumstances of Dr. Mudd's case, while Judge Cox concluded that it
was unnecessary to address the commission's jurisdiction because the
record did not contain sufficient evidence to convict Mudd of either
conspiracy to assassinate the President or of aiding and abetting
John Wilke Booth in the assassination. In reality, of course, there
was no appeal for Mudd in 1865, just as there was no appeal for any
defendant convicted by court martial or military commission. An
appeal from the decision of a military court did not appear in
American law until after World War II. The only review of the Hunter
Commission and other military tribunals was a review of the sentence
by the convening authority, who could reduce its severity or set it
aside. President Johnson approved Mudd's sentence and those of his
less fortunate co-defendants. Afterward, lawyers for Booth twice
attempted to obtain writs of habeas corpus, first in the U.S. Supreme
Court where Chief Justice Chase informally returned the petition,
suggesting that the petition ought to be addressed to the district
court with jurisdiction over Mudd's jailer, i.e., the District of
Florida. In that court, Judge Boynton ruled that Mudd was not
entitled to release by President Johnson's July 4, 1868 proclamation
of general amnesty and pardon and that the military nature of Mudd's
offense distinguished his case from that of Lambdin Milligan, whose
release from military custody had been ordered by the Supreme Court
in the interim. No appellate court ever passed on this decision.
John Paul Jones
School of Law
University of Richmond
Richmond, VA 23173
Jones@UofRLaw.URich.edu