Mary Surratt was sentenced to death for her role in the plot to assassinate President Lincoln. She was hanged alongside the men whose role was to actually kill people. She however, had no direct relationship to the killers nor was she assigned a government agent to kill. For this reason, I believe that Mary Surratt’s punishment was unfit and unjustifiable.
We know that Mary Surratt was hung alongside George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell, and David Herold. On page 27, Swanson writes, “George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell, and John Wilkes Booth would strike simultaneously and murder Vice President Johnson, Secretary of State Seward, and President Lincoln.” These three men were given direct orders from Booth to assassinate one of the heads of the Union. Mary
