Never has an
American trial produced
such an impressive set of key players:
The defendant--Aaron
Burr,
founding father, Vice President (and slayer of Alexander Hamilton in
their
famous duel three years earlier); The trial judge--John
Marshall,
Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (and the most
important
justice in history); The force behind the prosecution-- Thomas
Jefferson,
author of the Declaration of Independence, President of the United
States;
Defense
attorneys--Edmund Randolph and Luther Martin, both delegates
to the Constitutional Convention and among the most prominent men of
the
day;
Prosecutors-- Charles Lee, former Attorney General,
and William
Wirt, future presidential candidate.
The high-stakes
treason trial of
Aaron Burr came at an unstable time in our young nation's history.....[CONTINUED]
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