Did Lloyd Lie?

[LincolnToddFan]

I realize that it's quite useless to apply 20-21st legal guidelines to those of the 19th century, but I think it's obvious that several if not most of the Lincoln conspirators would have done minimal time in prison if convicted today. The exceptions are Lewis Powell who wreaked terrible mayhem at the Seward home, and perhaps Davy Herold. Even Powell could conceivably have pleaded diminished capacity. Certainly none of the four...Atzerodt, Herold, Powell, or Mary Surratt would have gotten the death penalty.

Then there is John Wilkes Booth, who would indeed have been eligible for the death penalty for such a crime today. But I have often wondered if a skilled legal team would have been able to successfully use a diminished capacity defense for him as well? He had been drinking heavily for days and was very despondent. In 1968 Sirhan Bishara Sirhan's(assassin of Robert F. Kennedy) attorneys wanted to use a diminished capacity strategy for him based on basically the same reasons...he was drunk. He was depressed, emotionally unstable. But Sirhan very unwisely(imo) insisted on making RFK's pro-Israel statements and the anguish it caused him the showcase of his defense and his justification for murder.

Something tells me JWB would have taken the same attitude as Sirhan. He would never have allowed his lawyers to use a diminished capacity defense. To plead that he was temporarily insane when he killed Lincoln would have been unthinkable to a man like JWB. And-like Sirhan-he likely would have insisted to the end that the circumstances justified the deed.