On April 15, 1865, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd treated John Wilkes Booth’s broken leg early in the morning after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He provided a place for Booth to rest until later that same day when Booth left to continue his escape south.
Dr. Mudd was arrested and was found guilty of aiding and abetting the assassins. He was sentenced to life imprisonment at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. Four years later, he was pardoned and released by President Andrew Johnson.
In 1992, Dr. Mudd’s grandson, Dr. Richard Mudd of Saginaw, Michigan, petitioned the Army to overturn his grandfather’s conviction and expunge the record. He contended that, as a civilian, Dr. Mudd should not have been tried by a military commission and that the conviction was illegal. The Army Board for Correction of Military Records (ABCMR) heard the petition and recommended that the conviction be set aside. The Army disagreed with the recommendation. Dr. Mudd appealed.
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