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The conspirator

Most Americans know that President Abraham Lincoln was killed by John Wilkes Booth. But not everyone knows, however, that Booth was only one of the participants in a secret conspiracy. The police caught up and shot him dead shortly after the murder, four of the alleged conspirators were executed, another four were sentenced by a military court to imprisonment. The new movie directed by Robert Redford “The conspirator” tells about one of the most tragic and mysterious events in U.S. history, and exactly about the process of the trial of Mary Surratt – the only woman among the eight arrested on suspicion of involvement in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

In addition, it should be mentioned that Mary Surratt was considered to be a co-conspirator and some people stated that she was guilty. The whole community attacks and accuses her. She does not know what to do and just decides to rely on a reluctant lawyer in order to recover the real truth and consequently save her own life from death.

According to the plot, on April 14, 1865 John Wilkes Booth shot the sixteenth U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, and in response, the government launched terror attacks against northern rebels from the south. A month later the people involved in the death of “honest Abe from the White House” were either killed or arrested, seven of the surviving conspirators were brought before a military tribunal. But it was impossible to find only one of the main defendants in the loud case – John Surratt who was closest aide of Bout. And then it was made one of the most controversial decisions in the history of the U.S. judicial system: to judge instead of a criminal his mother, a 42-year old Mary Surratt (Robin Wright) on the grounds that she could not be aware of the intentions of her son.

To protect the woman was entrusted the young lawyer Frederick Akes, the hero of the Civil War who fought on the Republican side. His colleagues told to him that only a rapid and decisive justice could satisfy the obsessive revenge of northerners and prevent new attacks of Confederates. However, the young lawyer was much more concerned with another question: “Is Surratt Guilty?” He decided at all costs to get to the truth, despite the disapproval of the woman he loved, friends bewildered and angry bosses. That was one of the most unfair trials in U.S. history.

The film is based on real events, project consultants were historian Fred Borch (the researcher of the case), Thomas Turner, James M. McPherson (who received the Pulitzer Prize). This is a tragic and powerful story, based for the most important U.S. historical events. It was introduced April 11, 2011, in honor of the 150 anniversary of the U.S. Civil War.

Taking the above-stated information into consideration, it is possible to conclude that the movie “the conspirator” is really a great and worthy story that gives us a great opportunity to find out about American nation’s Civil War and it is based on real historical events. In addition to that, the Conspirator states that the fluidity with the help of which the mandates of the U.S. Constitution were explained during and after the war did not discontinue their existence with the denial of the so-called habeas corpus.

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