Band at the execution

[BettyO]

I have to agree; especially considering vicarious liability. Seems to me that in college, we talked about this in a law class I took, and the professor also stated that this crime was also basically considered treason. The sentence for treason in the US always has been death. So, these four conspirators were considered traitors (and you see them variously described thus in some newspaper accounts) and therefore received the death sentence. I also have always believed that Stanton and the Commission wanted some scapegoats to serve as examples - and these four were tagged as "it!"