Mary Jenkins Surratt was a boarding house owner who was convicted and hanged for being part of the conspiracy against Abraham Lincoln. Surratt went down in history as the first white woman in the US to be executed by the United States federal government. Surratt was a confederate sympathizer during the Civil War. Surratt’s board house was used as a hideout for Confederate spies. Surratt was found guilty of allowing conspiracy meetings to take place in her board house. In the same vein, Surratt’s husband was one of the soldiers that enlisted for the Confederation army. When John Surratt died, he left his family with major financial issues, and this became the reason Mary Surratt agreed to host conspiracy spies. She was also involved in part of the planning of the assassination. Evidence showed that she had received money from the conspirators to keep mum about the meetings that were going on in her board house.
The suggestion to hang Mary Surratt can be justified according to the law. Despite her reasons, assisting in the killing of the president, and anyone for that matter is wrong. The issue of whether the death penalty helps in solving and punishing murder has been argued over the decades. Surratt argued that she did what she had to do to put food on the table for her family. However, the implications of her actions might have ripped her family apart instead of caring for them.
Additionally, the money that she got from the confederates would not have lasted her family very long. Mary Surratt did not think through her plan and because of this, a man was killed, she was hanged and her family was shamed.