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DE WITT’S “Special Report” Trial Of The Hon. Daniel E. Sickles For Shooting Philip Barton Key, ESQ., U.S. District Attorney, Of Washington, D.C.
Reported by Felix G. Fontaine. Published by R.M. De Witt.
Shot wife’s “friend” (the son of Frances Scott Keys) but got off on grounds of “temporary aberation” and served as Major-General in the Civil War.
P.C. with some tearing.
On February 27, 1859—in broad daylight—Congressman Daniel Sickles shot and killed Phillip Barton Key, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and son of Francis Scott Key, composer of the “Star Spangled Banner.” Sickles suspected that Key was having an affair with Sickles’s wife. Criminal Court Judge Thomas Crawford instructed the jury on the defense of temporary insanity—that Sickles could not be held criminally responsible if, because of a mental impairment, he was incapable of governing himself in accordance with law or was unaware of the wrongfulness of his conduct, even if that impairment was only temporary.
Estimated value: $200.00 - $400.00
