The April 1865 plots to assasinate President Lincoln, Vice President Johnson and Secretary of State Seward were planned in part at a boarding house owned and operated by Mary Surratt. After President Lincoln's assassination Mary Surratt was taken into custody and accused of participating in the conspiracy. She was tried by a military tribunal where she was not given the opportunity to testify and was later sentenced to death and executed. A group of Chicago lawyers, judges and historians re-tried Mary Surratt as if in a civilian court and left it up to the audience to decide her guilt or innocence.