Band at the execution

[LincolnToddFan]

(10-13-2014 08:54 AM)BettyO Wrote:  More than likely. Powell's attorney tried the insanity spiel but it didn't carry any weight because Powell was proven not to be insane. But likely, as in Rathbone's case, he would have been committed to an asylum instead of hanged.

Hi Betty,

That is one of the questions I had after finishing your absolutely first rate biography of Lewis a few weeks ago. I kept wondering how seriously his lawyer tried an insanity defense...especially after Lewis attempted to hurt himself by banging his head against the wall in his cell?

Do you think the Tribunal was so set on hanging him that they would not have considered such a defense?

But anyway, a Victorian insane asylum could be a fate worse than death...