Leon Czolgosz - Trial and Execution

Trial and Execution

Following the assassination, newly inaugurated President Theodore Roosevelt issued a pronouncement declaring: "When compared with the suppression of anarchy, every other question sinks into insignificance.”

On September 13, the day before McKinley succumbed to his wounds, Czolgosz was transferred from the police headquarters, since the headquarters were undergoing repairs, to the Erie County Women's Penitentiary. On the 16th he was taken to the Erie County Jail before being arraigned before County Judge Emery. After the arraignment, he was transferred to Auburn State Prison.

A grand jury indicted Czolgosz on September 16 with one count of first-degree murder. Throughout his incarceration, Czolgosz spoke freely with his guards, but refused every interaction with Robert C. Titus and Loran L. Lewis, the prominent judges-turned-attorneys assigned to defend him, and with the expert psychiatrist sent to test his sanity. A prison guard later came forward claiming that Czolgosz confided in him that because he claimed himself to be an anarchist, he would not talk with any people he viewed as related to authority which included his lawyers or any presiding trial judge.

The district attorney at trial was Thomas Penney, assisted by a Mr. Haller, whose performance was described as "flawless". Although Czolgosz answered that he was pleading "Guilty", the presiding Judge Truman C. White overruled him and entered a "Not Guilty" plea on his behalf.

In the nine days from McKinley's death on September 14, to Czolgosz's trial on September 23, Czolgosz's lawyers were unable to prepare a defense since Czolgosz refused to speak to either one of them. As a result, Loran L. Lewis argued at the trial that Czolgosz could not be found guilty for the murder of the president because he was insane at the time (similar to the defense that was used in the Charles J. Guiteau trial in 1881, after the shooting of President James A. Garfield).

On September 23 and 24 prosecution testimony was presented, consisting of the doctors who treated McKinley and various eyewitnesses to the shooting. Lewis did not call any defense witnesses. Czolgosz himself refused to testify on his own defense, nor did he ever speak at all in court. In his statement to the jury, Lewis noted Czolgosz's refusal to talk to his lawyers or cooperate with them, admitted his client's guilt, and said that "the only question that can be discussed or considered in this case is... whether that act was that of a sane person. If it was, then the defendant is guilty of the murder... If it was the act of an insane man, then he is not guilty of murder but should be acquitted of that charge and would then be confined in a lunatic asylum."

The prosecutor laid great stress on Czolgosz's anarchist affiliations and called upon the jury to heed the popular demand for a quick trial and execution. Since the defense had been unable to enter any evidence that Czolgosz had been afflicted with any kind of temporary insanity, there could only be one verdict. Even if the jury believed the defense that Czolgosz was insane by claiming that no sane man would have shot and killed the president in such a public and blatant manner in which he knew he would be caught, there was still the legal definition of insanity to be overcome. Under New York law, Czolgosz was legally insane only if he was unable to understand what he was doing.

At Thomas Penney's request, White closed the trial with instructions to the jury that supported the prosecution's argument that (a): Czolgosz was not insane, and that (b): he knew clearly what he was doing. After this, any chance that remained of acquitting Czolgosz on the basis of insanity was gone, since the defense offered no evidence that he couldn't understand the wrongness of his crime.

Czolgosz was convicted on September 24, 1901 after the jury deliberated for only one hour. On September 26, the jury unanimously recommended the death penalty. Czolgosz was said to have continued to remain silent and had shown no emotion upon both his conviction and death sentence. When he was asked by Judge White if he wanted to make any open court statement, Czolgosz shook his head meaning 'no'. Upon returning to Auburn Prison, Czolgosz asked the warden if this meant he would be transferred to Sing Sing to be electrocuted, and he seemed surprised to learn that Auburn had its own electric chair.

Czolgosz was electrocuted by three jolts, each of 1800 volts, in Auburn Prison on October 29, 1901, just 45 days after his victim's death.

His brother, Waldek, and his brother-in-law, Frank Bandowski, were in attendance. When Waldek asked the Warden for his brother's body to be taken for proper burial, he was informed that he "would never be able to take it away" and that crowds of people would mob him.

His last words were: "I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people – the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime." As the prison guards strapped him into the chair, however, he did say through clenched teeth, "I am only sorry I could not get to see my father."

Czolgosz was autopsied by John T. Gerin; his brain was autopsied by Edward Anthony Spitzka. The body was buried on prison grounds following the autopsy. Prison authorities originally planned to inter the body with quicklime to hasten its decomposition, but became dissatisfied with this option after testing quicklime on a sample of meat. After determining that they were not legally limited to the use of quicklime for the process, they poured sulfuric acid into Czolgosz's coffin so that his body would be completely disfigured. The warden estimated the acid caused the body to disintegrate within 12 hours.

Czolgosz's letters and clothes were burned, although in the case of letters the names of those who had sent threatening or sympathetic correspondence were recorded for future reference.