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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