Lambdin P. Milligan had been arrested in Indiana in 1864, along with three others, and charged with sedition and aiding the Confederacy. A military commission had tried and found him and two of his companions guilty and sentenced them all to death. Appeals based on the validity of the trial under habeus corpus and denial of a civilian trial had worked their way to the U.S. Supreme Court and the Court ruled "Ex Parte, Milligan" in his favor and ordered him and the others released. On this day, a week later, they left prison for good. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Antonio Cassese (ed.), The Oxford Companion to International Criminal Justice (New York: Oxford Univeristy Press, 2009), 664.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Lawmaking/Litigating
