Help Wanted

[L Verge]

I generally avoid dealing with anything that smells like legalese because I am such a dummy in that realm. However, are we missing one very important point here? We're dealing with a military court that is focusing on conspiracy law. Doesn't that sort of remove our Law & Order views of how a court works?

Special Judge Advocate John Bingham was very specific in his final argument. He stressed the major point that would indicate guilt on the part of all the accused: "It is not material what the nature of the indictment is, provided the offense involve a conspiracy. Upon indictment for murder, for instance, if it appear that others, together with the prisoner, conspired to perpetrate the crime, the act of one, done in pursuance of that intention, would be evidence against the rest." Wasn't he reciting the conspiracy law? Isn't part of that the English common law of "vicarous liability?"

The way I interpret it is that the court didn't need to know specifics; they only had to see proof of a link between Booth (the assassin) and any one of the other accused prisoners. The fact that it could be proven that Mary, Powell, Herold, and Atzerodt were linked to Booth up to the end is what sent them to the gallows.