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The Andersonville Trial

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The Andersonville Trial is a 1959 hit Broadway play by Saul Levitt . It was later adapted into a television production and presented as part of the PBS anthology series Hollywood Television Theatre .

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79-480: Interest in the subject - the actual 1865 court-martial of Henry Wirz , commander of the infamous Confederate Andersonville prison , where thousands of Union prisoners died - had been stimulated by MacKinlay Kantor 's historical novel Andersonville , which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1956. Shifting from a novel about the camp to a courtroom drama, Levitt first wrote the story into an episode of

158-472: A Confederate Army officer during the American Civil War . He was the commandant of Andersonville Prison , a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp near Andersonville, Georgia , where nearly 13,000 Union Army prisoners of war died as a result of inhumane conditions. After the war, Wirz was tried and executed for conspiracy and murder relating to his command of the camp; this made the captain

237-518: A master tailor and member of Zürich's city council, and Sophie Barbara Philipp. Wirz received elementary and secondary education, and he aspired to become a physician but his family did not possess funds to pay for his medical education. Instead, he was educated as a merchant in Zürich and Turin from 1840 until 1842, when he began working at the department store of Zürich. He married Emilie Oschwald in 1845 and had two children. In 1847, Wirz

316-432: A saturnalia of enjoyment for the prisoner [Wirz], who amid these savage orgies evidenced such exultation and mingled with them such nameless blasphemy and ribald jest, as at times to exhibit him rather as a demon than a man." In a letter to U.S. President Andrew Johnson , Wirz asked for clemency , but the letter went unanswered. The night before his execution, Louis F. Schade , an attorney working on behalf of Wirz,

395-707: A "special minister" and sent him to Europe carrying secret dispatches to Confederate Commissioners James Mason in England , and John Slidell in France . Wirz returned from Europe in January 1864 and reported to Richmond, Virginia , where he began working for General Winder in the prison department. Wirz initially served on detached duty as a prison commandant in Alabama , but was then transferred to help guard Union prisoners incarcerated at Richmond. In February 1864,

474-492: A captain, was the highest-ranked of any executed), the others being Confederate guerrillas Champ Ferguson and Henry C. Magruder . Confederate soldiers Robert Cobb Kennedy , Sam Davis , and John Yates Beall were executed for spying ; Marcellus Jerome Clarke was executed for being a guerrilla; and Andrew T Leopold was executed for spying, being a guerilla, and murder. In 1869, Schade received permission from President Johnson to rebury Wirz's body, which had been buried at

553-453: A confession may be admitted not only as evidence against its maker but also as evidence against a co-accused implicated thereby. The first is where the co-accused by his words or conduct accepts the truth of the statement so as to make all or part of it a confession statement of his own. The second exception, which is perhaps best understood in terms of implied agency, applies in the case of conspiracy: statements (or acts) of one conspirator which

632-478: A course of conduct which was itself a criminal offence. Section 1(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977 provides: if a person agrees with any other person or persons that a course of conduct shall be pursued which, if the agreement is carried out in accordance with their intentions, either – (a) will necessarily amount to or involve the commission of any offence or offences by one or more of the parties to

711-474: A criminal conspiracy at common law to engage in conduct which was not in itself a criminal offence: see Law Com No 76, para 1.7. This was a major mischief at which the 1977 Act was aimed, although it retained the convenient concept of a common law conspiracy to defraud : see Law Com No 76, paras 1.9 and 1.16. Henceforward, according to the Law Commission, it would only be an offence to agree to engage in

790-629: A doctor's assistant. There, he learned to perform small surgeries and cast fractures . He tried to establish his own homeopathic medicine practice in Cadiz, Kentucky , and also worked as superintendent of a water cure clinic in Northampton, Massachusetts . In 1854, Wirz married the Methodist widow Elizabeth Wolfe (née Savells). Along with her two daughters, they moved to Louisiana , where Wolfe gave birth to their daughter. In 1856 Wirz made

869-399: A person of something which is his or to which he is or would be or might be entitled [or] an agreement by two or more by dishonesty to injure some proprietary right of his suffices to constitute the offence. Section 5(3) Criminal Law Act 1977 preserved the common law offence of conspiracy to corrupt public morals or of conspiracy to outrage public decency. Conspiracy to corrupt public morals

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948-465: A publisher encourages immoral behaviour through explicit content in a magazine or periodical, as in the 1970 case of Knuller (Publishing, Printing and Promotions) Ltd v Director of Public Prosecutions , which ultimately was decided in 1973 by the House of Lords. In the 1991 case of R v Rowley , the defendant left notes in public places over a period of three weeks offering money and presents to boys with

1027-433: A traitor against him, or anybody else, even to save my life." The Rev. P. E. Bole received the same visitor and later sent a letter to Jefferson Davis, who included it as well as Wirz's reply to Schade in his book, Andersonville and Other War-Prisons (1890). Andersonville quartermaster Richard B. Winder, who was in the prison at the time, also confirmed this episode. Wirz was hanged at 10:32 a.m. on November 10, 1865, at

1106-410: A victim allegedly killed personally by Wirz. Among those giving testimony was Father Peter Whelan , a Catholic priest who worked with the inmates, who testified on Wirz's behalf. A former Andersonville guard named James Duncan was called to testify for the defence, but was arrested when he tried to give evidence for allegedly causing the death of a prisoner at Andersonville. In early November 1865,

1185-458: Is an offence under the common law of England and Wales. Conspiracy to outrage public decency is an offence under the common law of England and Wales. Section 5(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977 does not affect the common law offence of conspiracy if, and in so far as, it can be committed by entering into an agreement to engage in conduct which tends to corrupt public morals, or which outrages public decency, but which does not amount to or involve

1264-435: Is no limit to the number participating in the conspiracy and, in most countries, the plan itself is the crime, so there is no requirement that any steps have been taken to put the plan into effect (compare attempts which require proximity to the full offense). For the purposes of concurrence , the actus reus is a continuing one and parties may join the plot later and incur joint liability and conspiracy can be charged where

1343-439: Is not charged in the same indictment. Prosecutors choose to name persons as unindicted co-conspirators for a variety of reasons including grants of immunity, pragmatic considerations, and evidentiary concerns. At common law , the crime of conspiracy was capable of infinite growth, able to accommodate any new situation and to criminalize it if the level of threat to society was sufficiently great. The courts were therefore acting in

1422-436: Is not required under the federal drug conspiracy statute, 21 U.S.C. section 846. The conspirators can be guilty even if they do not know the identity of the other members of the conspiracy. California criminal law is somewhat representative of other jurisdictions. A punishable conspiracy exists when at least two people form an agreement to commit a crime, and at least one of them does some act in furtherance to committing

1501-415: Is reported to have conceded defeat. The Street Offences Act 1959 prohibited England's prostitutes from soliciting in the streets. One Shaw published a booklet containing prostitutes' names and addresses; each woman listed had paid Shaw for her advertisement. A 1962 majority in the House of Lords not only found the appellant guilty of a statutory offence (living on the earnings of prostitution), but also of

1580-549: The Battle of Seven Pines in May 1862, as an aide-de-camp to General Joseph E. Johnston , during which he was wounded by a Minie ball and lost the use of his right arm. That account is disputed by historians, one of whom says the injury may have actually occurred during a six-thousand mile mission to track down missing records of Union prisoners. That journey and a subsequent three months of rehabilitation at his home, were completed by

1659-822: The Dix-Hill Cartel prisoner exchange agreement in July 1863. The Grand Army of the Republic , the United Confederate Veterans , Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), and the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), among others, evoked sad memories of Civil War prisoners portraying Wirz either a villain, or a martyr-hero, thus further contributing to the disputation. From 1899 to 1916, sixteen states erected monuments dedicated to

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1738-717: The Old Capitol Prison in Washington D.C. , located next to the U.S. Capitol . His neck did not break from the fall, and the crowd of 200 spectators guarded by 120 soldiers watched as he writhed and slowly strangled. Wirz was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Wirz was one of only three men tried, convicted, and executed for war crimes during the Civil War (and, being

1817-606: The Watergate special prosecutor, in an event leading up to his eventual resignation. Conspiracy against the United States , or conspiracy to defraud the United States , is a federal offense in the United States under 18 U.S.C.   § 371 . The crime is that of two or more persons who conspire to commit an offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States. The United States has

1896-404: The intention of luring them for immoral purposes, but there was nothing lewd, obscene or disgusting in the notes, nor were they printed by a news magazine at the behest of Rowley, which would have invoked the element of conspiracy. The judge ruled that the jury was entitled to look at the purpose behind the notes in deciding whether they were lewd or disgusting. On appeal against conviction , it

1975-451: The "common law misdemeanour of conspiracy to corrupt public morals". In the case of Knuller (Publishing, Printing and Promotions) Ltd v DPP , which was decided 1973 in the House of Lords , the appellants were directors of a company which published a fortnightly magazine. On an inside page under a column headed "Males" advertisements were inserted inviting readers to meet the advertisers for

2054-563: The CBS series Climax! , which aired as The Trial of Captain Wirz on June 27, 1957. The episode featured Everett Sloane as Wirz and Charlton Heston as Norton P. Chipman , the War Department 's prosecutor. Levitt next turned to treatment as a play, called The Andersonville Trial , which opened at Henry Miller's Theatre on December 29, 1959, and ran for 179 performances. The production

2133-781: The Camp Sumter's prisoners. In response, the United Daughters of the Confederacy initiated a construction of a monument honoring Henry Wirz in Andersonville, Georgia . Every year the UDC and SCV hold a memorial service at the monument. Until recently, SCV annually marched to Wirz's memorial in Andersonville along with supporters of a congressional pardon for him. The SCV posthumously awarded Wirz their Confederate Medal of Honor , created in 1977. During and after

2212-485: The Confederate government established Camp Sumter , a large military prison near the small railroad depot of Anderson (now Andersonville ) in south-western Georgia , built to house Union prisoners-of-war. In April 1864, Wirz arrived at Camp Sumter and remained there for over a year holding the post of commandant of the stockade and its interior. Wirz was praised by his many superiors and even by some prisoners, and

2291-465: The House of Lords in 1974, it was unanimously held that conspiracy to effect a public mischief was not a separate and distinct class of criminal conspiracy. This overruled earlier decisions to the contrary effect. The Law Commission published a consultation paper on this subject in 1975. The offence of conspiracy to murder was created in statutory law by section 4 of the Offences Against

2370-553: The London premises of the High Commissioner for Sierra Leone in order to publicize grievances against the government of that country. Upon their arrival at the commission, they threatened the caretaker with an imitation firearm and locked him in a reception room with ten other members of the staff. The students then held a press conference on the telephone, but the caretaker was able to contact the police, who arrived, released

2449-627: The Military Commission found Wirz guilty of conspiracy as charged, along with 10 of 13 specifications of acts of personal cruelty, and sentenced him to death . He was acquitted of specifications 4, 10, and 13. In his report on the trial, the Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt , who had prosecuted the Lincoln assassination trials , vilified Wirz and pronounced that "his work of death seems to have been

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2528-551: The Person Act 1861 . See Conspiracy to defraud § Northern Ireland . See Part IV of the Criminal Attempts and Conspiracy (Northern Ireland) Order 1983 (S.I. 1983/1120 (N.I. 13)). Conspiracy has been defined in the United States as an agreement of two or more people to commit a crime, or to accomplish a legal end through illegal actions. Conspiracy law usually does not require proof of specific intent by

2607-565: The Union with a petition written by the inmates asking the government to negotiate their release. At its peak in August 1864 after its expansion to 26 acres, the prison held some 33,000 Union prisoners – around four times more than any other Confederate prison – with little more than patchy tents for shelter. The same summer saw more than 100 prisoners die of disease, exposure, or malnutrition every day. Around 45,000 prisoners were incarcerated during

2686-426: The Union. The prisoners gave this place the name "Andersonville", which became the colloquial name for the camp. Camp Sumter suffered from severe overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and an extreme lack of food, tools, medical supplies, and potable water . Wirz recognized that the conditions were inadequate and petitioned his superiors to provide more support, but was denied. In July 1864, he sent five prisoners to

2765-685: The Washington Arsenal alongside the Lincoln assassins. While the body was being transferred, it was discovered that the right arm, and parts of the neck and head, had been removed during autopsy. As of the late 1990s, the National Museum of Health and Medicine still had two of his vertebrae. The Wirz controversy grew out of the questions remaining after his trial pertaining to guilt and responsibility for multiple deaths of prisoners of war in camps on both sides following suspension of

2844-681: The acquaintance of Levin R. Marshall , the owner of the plantation Cabin Teele, who employed him as its overseer and where he set up a practice for homeopathic medicine. Upon the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, the 37-year-old Wirz enlisted as a private in Company A (Madison Infantry), 4th Battalion of Louisiana Infantry of the Confederate army in Madison Parish . Shortly before his death, he said that he had taken part in

2923-555: The agreement, or (b) would do so but for the existence of facts which render the commission of the offence or any of the offences impossible, [added by S.5 Criminal Attempts Act 1981] he is guilty of conspiracy to commit the offence or offences in question. Section 1A (inserted by the Criminal Justice (Terrorism and Conspiracy) Act 1998 , s. 5) bans conspiracies part of which occurred in England and Wales to commit an act or

3002-406: The camp's 14-month existence, of whom close to 13,000 (28%) died. Wirz was arrested by a contingent of the 4th U.S. Cavalry on May 7, 1865, in Andersonville. He was taken first to Macon, Georgia , and then by rail to Washington, D.C. , arriving there on May 10, 1865, where he was held in the Old Capitol Prison since the federal government decided to put him on trial for conspiring to impair

3081-401: The co-conspirators have been acquitted or cannot be traced. Finally, repentance by one or more parties does not affect liability (unless, in some cases, it occurs before the parties have committed overt acts) but may reduce their sentence . An unindicted co-conspirator, or unindicted conspirator, is a person or entity that is alleged in an indictment to have engaged in conspiracy, but who

3160-407: The commission of an offence if carried out by a single person otherwise than in pursuance of an agreement. One authority maintains that conspiracy to "corrupt public morals" has no definitive case law, that it is unknown whether or not it is a substantive offence, and that it is unlikely that conspirators will be prosecuted for this offence. These two offences cover situations where, for example,

3239-536: The common law offence of conspiracy to defraud. Conspiracy to defraud was defined in Scott v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis per Viscount Dilhorne: "to defraud" ordinarily means ... to deprive a person dishonestly of something which is his or of something to which he is or would or might but for the perpetration of the fraud be entitled. ... an agreement by two or more [persons] by dishonesty to deprive

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3318-603: The confederating of two or more, and dropped the requirement that an actual indictment of an innocent take place, whereby precedent was set that conspiracy only need involve an attempted crime, and that the agreement was the act, which enabled subsequent holdings against an agreement to commit any crime, not just that originally proscribed. In Kamara v Director of Public Prosecutions , nine students, who were nationals of Sierra Leone , appealed their convictions for conspiracy to trespass, and unlawful assembly. These persons, together with others who did not appeal, conspired to occupy

3397-484: The course of filming Shatner, who was recently divorced, met for the first time the woman who became his second wife, Marcy Lafferty . The television adaptation did well at the 1971 Emmy Awards , winning the award for Outstanding Single Program - Drama or Comedy , as well as for "Technical Direction and Electronic Camerawork". Levitt took home the award for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Drama (Adaptation). The program

3476-409: The crime is, in my opinion, established if, and only if, it is shown that the accused, when he entered into the agreement, intended to play some part in the agreed course of conduct in furtherance of the criminal purpose which the agreed course of action was intended to achieve. Nothing less will suffice; nothing more is required. It is not therefore necessary for any action to be taken in furtherance of

3555-459: The crime of conspiring to commit a specific offence or offences under section 1(1) of the Act of 1977 is that the accused should agree that a course of conduct be pursued which he knows must involve the commission by one or more of the parties to the agreement of that offence or those offences. Lord Bridge in R v Anderson also said: But, beyond the mere fact of agreement, the necessary mens rea of

3634-537: The crime. Each person is punishable in the same manner and to the same extent as is provided for the punishment of the crime itself. One example of this is the Han twins murder conspiracy case, where one twin sister attempted to hire two youths to have her twin sister killed. One important feature of a conspiracy charge is that it relieves prosecutors of the need to prove the particular roles of conspirators. If two persons plot to kill another (and this can be proven), and

3713-414: The criminal purpose in order for a conspiracy offence to have been committed. This distinguishes a conspiracy from an attempt (which necessarily does involve a person doing an act): see Criminal Attempts Act 1981 . Lord Steyn in R v Hayter said: The rule about confessions is subject to exceptions. Keane, The Modern Law of Evidence 5th ed., (2000) p 385–386, explains: In two exceptional situations,

3792-425: The defendants to injure any specific person to establish an illegal agreement. Instead, usually the law requires only that the conspirators have agreed to engage in a certain illegal act. However, the application of conspiracy laws requires a tacit agreement among members of a group to commit a crime. Such laws allow the government to charge a defendant regardless of whether the planned criminal act has been committed or

3871-403: The end of 1862. After returning to his unit on June 12, 1862, Wirz was promoted to captain "for bravery on the field of battle." Because of his injury, Wirz was assigned to the staff of General John H. Winder , who was in charge of Confederate prisoner-of-war camps, as his adjutant. Later accounts by Wirz's daughter alleged that Confederate President Jefferson Davis made Captain Wirz

3950-458: The fame of several convicts, the Wolfenden report was commissioned by government, and was published in 1957. Thereupon came the publication of several books, both pro and contra the report. Of these books we can isolate two representatives: Lord Devlin wrote in favour of societal norms, or morals, while H. L. A. Hart wrote that the state could ill regulate private conduct. In May 1965, Devlin

4029-623: The happening of some other event outside the United Kingdom which constitutes an offence under the law in force in that country or territory. Many conditions apply including that prosecutions need consent from the Attorney General . There must be an agreement between two or more persons. The mens rea of conspiracy is a separate issue from the mens rea required of the substantive crime. Lord Bridge in R v Anderson – quoted in R v Hussain said: an essential ingredient in

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4108-403: The health and destroy the lives of soldiers in the military service of the United States, then held and being prisoners of war within the lines of the so-called Confederate States, and in the military prisons thereof, to the end that the armies of the United States might be weakened and impaired, in violation of the laws and customs of war" and for "violation of the laws of war, to impair and injure

4187-510: The health and to destroy the lives—by subjecting to torture and great suffering; by confining in unhealthy and unwholesome quarters; by exposing to the inclemency of winter and to the dews and burning sun of summer; by compelling the use of impure water; and by furnishing insufficient and unwholesome food—of large numbers of Federal prisoners." Wirz was accused of committing 13 acts of personal cruelty and murders in August 1864: by revolver (specifications 1, 3, 4), by physically stomping and kicking

4266-445: The hero of the story due to his efforts to obtain justice for all the men who suffered and died at the camp. Instead of acting, Scott returned as a director when Levitt created an adaptation of the play for television. The production aired May 17, 1970 on NET , now featuring William Shatner as Chipman, Richard Basehart as Wirz, Jack Cassidy as Wirz's defense counsel, Cameron Mitchell as Wallace, and Buddy Ebsen as Dr. Bates. In

4345-594: The highest-ranking soldier and only officer of the Confederate Army to be sentenced to death for crimes during their service. Since his execution, Wirz has become a controversial figure due to debate about his guilt and reputation, including criticism over his personal responsibility for Andersonville Prison's conditions and the quality of his post-war trial. Wirz was born Hartmann Heinrich Wirz on November 25, 1823, in Zürich , Switzerland , to Johann Caspar Wirz,

4424-425: The identities or whereabouts of members of a conspiracy are unknown, or when the prosecution is concerned only with a particular individual among the conspirators. This is common when the target of the indictment is an elected official or an organized crime leader, and the co-conspirators are persons of little or no public importance. More famously, President Richard Nixon was named as an unindicted co-conspirator by

4503-422: The jury is satisfied were said (or done) in the execution or furtherance of the common design are admissible in evidence against another conspirator, even though he was not present at the time, to prove the nature and scope of the conspiracy, provided that there is some independent evidence to show the existence of the conspiracy and that the other conspirator was a party to it. According to Edward Coke , conspiracy

4582-405: The lives of Union prisoners of war. A special military commission was convened with Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace presiding. The other members were Gershom Mott ; John W. Geary ; Lorenzo Thomas ; Francis Fessenden ; Edward S. Bragg ; John F. Ballier, U.S. Volunteers; T. Allcock, 4th New York Artillery; and John H. Stibbs, 12th Iowa Volunteers. Col. Norton P. Chipman served as Judge Advocate. During

4661-688: The play was recreated for an episode of PBS's 1970–71 season of Hollywood Television Theatre , Wirz was portrayed by Richard Basehart . Wirz was portrayed by the Czech actor Jan Tříska in the American film Andersonville (1996). Conspiracy (crime) In criminal law , a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to commit a crime at some time in the future. Criminal law in some countries or for some conspiracies may require that at least one overt act be undertaken in furtherance of that agreement, to constitute an offense . There

4740-460: The possibility of the crime being carried out successfully. In most U.S. jurisdictions, for a person to be convicted of conspiracy, not only must he or she agree to commit a crime, but at least one of the conspirators must commit an overt act (the actus reus ) in furtherance of the crime. However, in United States v. Shabani the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that this "overt act" element

4819-552: The precedent that certain wartime behavior is unacceptable, regardless if committed under the orders of superiors or on one's own. Wirz is an important character in MacKinlay Kantor 's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Andersonville (1955), introduced in the third chapter during his mission to France in October 1863. In Saul Levitt 's 1959 play The Andersonville Trial , Wirz was first played by Herbert Berghof . When

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4898-606: The prisoners, and arrested the accused. In this case the Court felt that the public interest was clearly involved because of the statutory duty of the British Government to protect diplomatic premises. Lauton J delivered the judgment of the Court of Appeal dismissing the appeal from conviction. These offences were at one time tied up with prostitution and homosexual behaviour. After the Second World War, due to

4977-480: The purpose of homosexual practices. The appellants were convicted on counts of The appeal on count 1 was dismissed, while the appeal on count 2 was allowed because in the present case there had been a misdirection in relation to the meaning of "decency" and the offence of "outrage". The list of cases consulted in the ratio decidendi is lengthy, and the case of Shaw v DPP is a topic of furious discussion. In Withers v Director of Public Prosecutions , which reached

5056-510: The role of the legislature to create new offences and, following the Law Commission Report No. 76 on Conspiracy and Criminal Law Reform, the Criminal Law Act 1977 produced a statutory offence and abolished all the common law varieties of conspiracy, except two: that of conspiracy to defraud, and that of conspiracy to corrupt public morals or to outrage public decency. Section 5(2) of the Criminal Law Act 1977 preserved

5135-479: The trial Wirz was reviled in the court of public opinion as "The Demon of Andersonville". One controversy concerns a witness for the prosecution, Felix de la Baume, who was actually Felix Oesser, a deserter from the 7th New York Volunteers (Steuben) regiment. According to the National Park Service, de la Baume was definitely a prisoner at Andersonville and it is a myth that he was a key witness at

5214-548: The trial gangrene prevented Wirz from sitting and he spent the trial on a couch. The military tribunal took place between August 23 and October 18, 1865, was held in the United States Court of Claims , and dominated the front pages of newspapers across the United States. Wirz was charged with "combining, confederating, and conspiring, together with John H. Winder, Richard B. Winder, Joseph [Isaiah H.] White, W. S. Winder, R. R. Stevenson, and others unknown, to injure

5293-488: The trial, including former Camp Sumter prisoners, ex-Confederate soldiers, and residents of nearby Andersonville. According to Benjamin G. Cloyd, 145 testified that they did not observe Wirz kill any prisoners; others failed to identify specific victims. Twelve said that they witnessed cruelty on the part of Wirz. One witness, Felix de la Baume, who claimed to be a descendant of the Marquis de Lafayette , identified under oath

5372-490: The trial. After time passed, some writers suggested Wirz's tribunal was unjust, stating that "Wirz did not receive a fair trial. Nevertheless, he was found guilty and sentenced to death." In 1980, historian Morgan D. Peoples referred to Wirz as a " scapegoat ." Wirz's conviction remains controversial. Despite the surrounding controversy, the Wirz trial was one of the nation's significant early war crimes tribunals , creating enduring moral and legal notions and established

5451-429: The victim (specification 2), by confining prisoners in stocks (specifications 5, 6), by beating a prisoner with a revolver (specification 13) and by chaining prisoners together (specification 7). Wirz was also charged with ordering guards to fire on prisoners with muskets (specifications 8, 9, 10, 12) and to have dogs attack a prisoner (specification 11). The National Park Service lists 158 witnesses who testified at

5530-436: The victim is indeed killed as a result of the actions of either conspirator, it is not necessary to prove with specificity which of the conspirators actually pulled the trigger. It is also an option for prosecutors, when bringing conspiracy charges, to decline to indict all members of the conspiracy (though the existence of all members may be mentioned in an indictment ). Such unindicted co-conspirators are commonly found when

5609-473: Was also honored with a Peabody Award . Cassidy was nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role , but lost to his director, as Scott won for starring in an adaptation of Arthur Miller 's play, The Price . Henry Wirz Henry Wirz (born Hartmann Heinrich Wirz ; November 25, 1823 – November 10, 1865) was a Swiss-American convicted war criminal who served as

5688-414: Was directed by José Ferrer and opened with George C. Scott as Chipman, Herbert Berghof as Wirz, Albert Dekker as Wirz's defense counsel, and Russell Hardie as Union general Lew Wallace , who presided over the court-martial. Ian Keith , who played Dr. John C. Bates, an Andersonville camp surgeon and key witness for the prosecution regarding the fate of Union prisoners, died during the show's run and

5767-511: Was even recommended for, but not promoted to, major . Camp Sumter had not been constructed to its full plan, and was quickly overwhelmed by the influx of Union prisoners. Though wooden barracks were originally planned, the Confederates incarcerated the prisoners in a vast, rectangular, open-air stockade originally encompassing 16.5 acres (6.7 ha), which had been intended as only a temporary prison pending exchanges of prisoners with

5846-451: Was held that an act outraging public decency required a deliberate act which was in itself lewd, obscene or disgusting, so Rowley's motive in leaving the notes was irrelevant and, since there was nothing in the notes themselves capable of outraging public decency, the conviction was quashed. This offence was created as a result of the Law Commission's recommendations in their Report, Conspiracy and Criminal Law Reform, 1976, Law Com No 76. This

5925-399: Was originally a statutory remedy against false accusation and prosecution by "a consultation and agreement between two or more to appeal or indict an innocent man falsely and maliciously of felony, whom they cause to be indicted and appealed; and afterward the party is lawfully acquitted". In Poulterer's Case , 77 Eng. Rep. 813 (K.B. 1611), the court reasoned that the thrust of the crime was

6004-424: Was part of the commission's programme of codification of the criminal law. The eventual aim was to abolish all the remaining common law offences and replace them, where appropriate, with offences precisely defined by statute. The common law offences were seen as unacceptably vague and open to development by the courts in ways which might offend the principle of certainty. There was an additional problem that it could be

6083-407: Was replaced by Douglas Herrick. Scott later recalled that what he found most difficult about playing Chipman onstage was that the defendant Wirz came across as a tragic, sympathetic victim, although his negligence, according to the verdict, had a great deal to do with the deplorable conditions at Andersonville. Meanwhile, he felt the audience was compelled to dislike Chipman, despite being essentially

6162-536: Was sentenced to four years in prison on charges of embezzlement and fraud . He was released the next year and his sentence was commuted to 12 years of exile from the canton of Zürich , but his wife refused to emigrate and obtained a divorce in 1853. Wirz first went to Moscow , in 1848, and the next year to the United States , where he found employment in a factory in Lawrence, Massachusetts . After five years, he moved to Hopkinsville, Kentucky , and worked as

6241-442: Was told by an emissary from a high Cabinet official that if Wirz implicated Jefferson Davis in the atrocities committed at Andersonville, his sentence would be commuted. Allegedly, Schade repeated the offer to Wirz who replied, "Mr. Schade, you know that I have always told you that I do not know anything about Jefferson Davis. He had no connection with me as to what was done at Andersonville. If I knew anything of him, I would not become

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