1865: Not Lambdin P. Milligan, ex parte man

ExecutedToday.com ^ | May 19, 2015 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

This date in 1865 was the originally scheduled hanging of Indiana pro-slavery gadfly Lambdin P. Milligan — a sentence respited two days prior by President Andrew Johnson, and then subsequently commuted, for which reason Milligan survived to attach his surname to a landmark Supreme Court decision the following year...

Milligan was among several of the conspirators swept up in arrests in the following weeks, then tried by military tribunal for treason and sedition. It’s hard to argue that the plot was anything but.

But why a military court? This is the question in Milligan’s great legacy to posterity, the Supreme Court ruling Ex Parte Milligan.†

Milligan himself was not a soldier, and had not been in a war zone. He was a civilian, and Indiana’s regular civilian courts had never ceased to function. The question at stake in Milligan’s appeal to the Supreme Court was whether there was any legitimate recourse to a military tribunal under such conditions — well behind the lines, as it were...

[CheshireTheCat]

Have to go to bed early tonight and so must post tomorrow's Execution/History post tonight. I think this is the first one I posted that features an almost execution, but this is an important one.

[CheshireTheCat]

Kavanaugh and Graham discussed this case at Kavanaugh’s appointment hearings.

I won’t be around during the day tomorrow to join in the discussions. It is going to be a tense day at work; a lot of people are going to be unhappy with the boss.

[super7man]

So.... HOW unhappy we talkin’ here. ;0)