[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 82 (Thursday, June 12, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1208-E1209]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           INTRODUCTION OF THE SAMUEL MUDD RELIEF ACT OF 1997

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 12, 1997

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce legislation which 
seeks to clear the name of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd and set aside his 
conviction for harboring John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President 
Abraham Lincoln. Due to the tremendous amount of controversy over Dr. 
Mudd's conviction, his case was reviewed by five high-ranking civilian 
employees of the Department of the Army in January, 1992. After all the 
testimony and evidence was presented, the civilian panel unanimously 
declared Dr. Mudd innocent of the charges. However, without commenting 
on the facts in this case, the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army 
declined to accept this decision based on jurisdictional grounds. I 
believe that Dr. Mudd deserves an official exoneration, and that the 
Department of the Army should follow the recommendations of its own 
civilian panel, and that of two former Presidents.
  On April 14, 1865 President Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's 
Theater by the actor, John Wilkes Booth. Following the extensive 
manhunt for Booth that ensued, on April 21, 1865, Dr. Samuel Mudd, a 
gentleman farmer and physician, living in Southern Maryland, was 
arrested for ``aiding and comforting'' Booth. Specifically, he was 
accused of setting Booth's leg which was broken when he jumped off the 
balcony onto the stage at Ford's Theater.
  Dr. Mudd was represented by General Thomas Ewing, Jr., who served in 
the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1870's, representing 
Lancaster, OH. Because President Lincoln was also Commander in Chief, 
Dr. Mudd was tried before a military commission, known as the Hunter 
Commission. Although he was found guilty, Dr. Mudd was imprisoned, not 
hung as were four of Booth's alleged co-conspirators. After being 
imprisoned in the Dry Tortugas for 4 years, President Andrew Jackson 
pardoned him because of his devoted medical care of prisoners and 
guards in a yellow fever epidemic.
  For more than 75 years now, Dr. Richard Mudd, the grandson of Dr. 
Samuel Mudd, has been working to have his grandfather's conviction set 
aside. He is now 96 years old and has devoted his entire adult life to 
this very important and worthy cause. His efforts to have the 
Department of the Army set aside the conviction have been, and continue 
to be, grounded in fact and have substantial support among historians 
throughout the Nation. Moreover, former Presidents Carter and Reagan 
have both written letters proclaiming their belief that Dr. Mudd was 
innocent.
  In July, 1990, at the urging of Senator Biden, the Judge Advocate 
General of the U.S. Army determined that the U.S. Army Board of 
Correction of Military Records [ABCMR] had the jurisdiction to review 
such a case and to determine the feasibility of setting aside the 
conviction. For 2 years, the Mudd family collected historical 
information and prepared their case, which was presented to the Army in 
January, 1992. Their argument that Dr. Mudd's conviction should be set 
aside was based on the premise that the Army did not have jurisdiction 
over a civilian, who had a constitutional right to be tried by a jury 
of his peers in civil court. Moreover, his due process rights, they 
argued, had been violated because insufficient evidence of his guilt 
had been presented to the military commission.
  Mr. Speaker, the five member board unanimously found that Dr. Mudd's 
conviction should be set aside and recommended such action to the 
Secretary of the Army. They had determined that the Hunter Commission 
of 1865 did not have the jurisdictional authority to try Dr. Samuel 
Mudd and that he had suffered a ``gross infringement of his 
constitutional rights.'' These jurisdictional arguments were bolstered 
by a Supreme Court decision in 1886 that a citizen of the United 
States, who was not a member of the armed forces, could not be tried by 
the military when the civil courts are open and functioning. However, 
in a surprise decision in July, 1992, Acting Assistant Secretary 
William D. Clark declined to adopt the Board's recommendation. While 
this decision was appealed in August, 1992, no further action was taken 
until March, 1996.
  In March, 1996, as over 130 years had passed since the assassination 
of President Lincoln, Assistant Secretary Sara Lister declined to adopt 
the board's recommendation to set aside Dr. Mudd's conviction, adding 
that her decision did not ``involve the substantive aspects of whether 
Dr. Mudd was actually guilty or innocent.'' Rather, Assistant Secretary 
Lister found that it was improper to attempt to retry this case or 
determine the feasibility and appropriateness of a decision made over 
100 years earlier. She thus found that she did not have the appropriate 
jurisdiction to set aside Dr. Mudd's conviction. She determined that 
``It would be inappropriate for the Army to administratively correct 
the record of conviction or attempt to alter legal history by non-
judicial means.''

  However, Mr. Speaker, for those of us who believe that there is 
significant evidence and information proving Dr. Mudd's innocence, 
therefore agreeing with the ABCMR's 1992 decision, we cannot stand idly 
by and allow this conviction to stand. If the facts are clear and 
conclusive, as the ABCMR found in 1992 and as former Presidents Carter 
and Reagan have determined, then the Congress must act to set aside the 
conviction of an innocent man.
  Despite the Army's claim that the appropriate time to appeal this 
decision was 130 years ago, we must understand the hysteria and 
upheaval that ensued immediately following President Lincoln's tragic 
assassination. It is clear that the pressure to round up and arrest all 
of those involved in the assassination led to a conviction that fell 
far short of meeting the prosecution's burden of proof requirement. 
Moreover, the process by which Dr. Mudd was found guilty clearly 
violated his constitutional right to a ``trial by jury.''
  Governor Engler and state legislators from Michigan, including 
Senator William Van Regenmorter, and the Charles County Board of 
Commissioners in Maryland support efforts to have this conviction 
overturned. Moreover, there are hundreds of people throughout the 
Nation who are dedicated to seeing justice served and history recorded 
accurately in this case. I am introducing this legislation today with 
my colleague from Illinois, Representative Thomas Ewing, who himself is 
collaterally related to Samuel Mudd's lawyer. It directs the Secretary 
of the Army to set aside the conviction and specifically cites the 
denial of due process of law and insufficient evidence. Because Dr. 
Mudd was found guilty by a military court, his record can only be 
cleared by the U.S. Army.
  Mr. Speaker, while it is clear that Dr. Mudd did set John Wilkes 
Booth's broken leg, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that he 
was either a co-conspirator in the assassination of President Lincoln 
or even aware of the events which had occurred earlier that evening on 
Friday, April 14, 1865.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in ensuring that history is recorded 
accurately and that our Nation's most basic individual rights, embodied 
in the Constitution, are not violated at any time. Dr. Samuel Mudd's 
name and honor and that of his family, many of whom live in my 
district, hangs in the balance. We ought to allow the findings and 
decision of the Army Board of Correction of Military Records, the

[[Page E1209]]

most reputable and qualified entity to date which has reviewed this 
case, to stand, thus ending the 132-year-long disservice accorded to 
Dr. Samuel Mudd.

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