Maggie's Farm

"Torn asunder"? I'm not sure why you say that. So Redford "courted ambiguity"? Well, as it happens, some members of the military tribunal that convicted Surratt were not entirely sure of Surratt's role in the conspiracy and, after having convicted her and sentenced her to death, wrote to President Andrew Johnson with a request for leniency, asking him to commute her death sentence to life imprisonment. Which he proceeded to ignore. After the conviction, the Supreme Court for the District of Columbia issued a writ of habeas corpus at the request of Surratt's lawyers, which Johnson also ignored, citing the habeas corpus act of 1863 passed by Congress which allowed Johnson (and Lincoln before him) to suspend that fundamental right in law. As for whether Surratt should have been tried in civil court instead of by the military tribunal formed at the direction of President Johnson, Congress had gutted and reorganized the civil court system in D.C. in 1863 in order to fire some judges on the old court who had lifetime appointments. I can imagine that proceedings in the civil courts in D.C. might have been pretty messy after the war. The situation might not have been exactly favorable to a dispassionate trial of someone who was accused of conspiring to kill the President and two others. (For the record, one co-conspirator claimed she was not involved in the plot, another claimed she was deeply involved. I don't know what the historians have finally concluded.)