On Lincoln's birthday last year, an appeal on behalf of Dr. Samuel A.
Mudd was heard in a moot court at the University of Richmond by a
distinguished panel of Federal judges expert in military and
international law. The Hon. Robinson O. Everett, former Chief Judge
of the U.S. Court of Military Appeals, was joined by the Hon. Edward
D. Re, Chief Judge Emeritus of the U.S. Court of International Trade
and the Hon. Walter Thompson Cox, III, Judge of the U.S. Court of
Military Appeals. The three jurists heard F. Lee Bailey and Candida
Ewing Steel (great granddaughter of Dr. Mudd's trial lawyer, Union
Brigadier Thomas Ewing) argue that a military court should not have
tried a civilian and that there was insufficient evidence to sustain
a charge of abetting John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of the
President. Two eminent military lawyers, Colonel John Jay Douglass
(ret.), former Commandant of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate's School,
and Admiral John S. Jenkins (ret.), former Judge Advocate General of
the Navy, answered for the government. The appeal was limited by
the record of the Hunter Commission and governed by the law in 1867.
The judgment of the court and the opinions of the judges are now
available. To obtain a copy, send a self-addressed and stamped (52
cents) envelope (5 x 7) to: Mudd Slip, School of Law, University of
Richmond, VA 23173. Otherwise, send one dollar, and we'll take care
of postage and handling.
John Paul Jones
School of Law
University of Richmond
Richmond, VA 23173
Jones@UofRLaw.URich.edu