page_title: Assassination of James A. Garfield
section_title: Trial and execution
hierarchical_section_title: Assassination of James A. Garfield / Trial and execution
caption_attribution_description: English: President Garfield's Funeral March" by E. Gilmore; published by The Western Music Company, Alden, Iowa, according to picture; store Web page states: "This 1881 sheet music, which was composed by E. Gilmore and bears a large picture of Garfield, was one of several similar pieces written to honor the fallen leader. However, it is one of the more difficult to find as it was published by a small music publisher (The Western Music Company) located in Ames, Iowa." Unless Alden is part of Ames, either the store Web page or the sheet music cover itself was incorrect on this point.
context_page_description: The assassination of James Abram Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, began when he was shot at 9:30 am on July 2, 1881, less than four months into his term as president. Garfield died 79 days later on September 19, 1881. He was shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C., and died in Elberon, New Jersey. Guiteau's motive was revenge against Garfield for an imagined political debt.
context_section_description: Guiteau went on trial in November, represented by his brother-in-law George Scolville. He received ample media attention during his trial for his bizarre behavior, including constantly insulting his defense team, formatting his testimony in epic poems which he recited at length, and soliciting legal advice from random spectators in the audience via passed notes. He claimed that he was not guilty because Garfield's murder was the will of God and he was only an instrument of it. He sang "John Brown's Body" to the court. He dictated an autobiography to the New York Herald, ending it with a personal ad for a nice Christian lady under 30. He was oblivious to the American public's outrage and hatred of him, even after he was almost killed twice himself—once while in prison, and again while being transported there. At one point, he argued that Garfield was killed not by him but by medical malpractice: "I deny the killing, if your honor please. We admit the shooting." He was housed at St. Elizabeths Hospital in the southeastern quadrant of Washington, D.C. throughout the trial and up until his execution.
  Guiteau's trial was one of the first high-profile cases in the United States where the insanity defense was considered. Guiteau vehemently insisted that he had been legally insane at the time of the shooting, but he was not really medically insane, which caused a major rift with his defense lawyers, and which probably contributed to the jury's impression that Guiteau was merely trying to deny responsibility.
  Guiteau was actively making plans to start a lecture tour after his release and to run for president himself in 1884; at the same time, he delighted in the media circus surrounding his trial. He was dismayed when the jury was unconvinced of his divine inspiration, convicting him of the murder. He was found guilty on January 25, 1882. He appealed, but his appeal was rejected, and he was hanged on June 30, 1882, just two days before the first anniversary of the shooting, in the District of Columbia. Guiteau famously danced his way up to the gallows and waved at the audience from the gallows, shook hands with his executioner and, as a last request, recited a poem that he had written called "I am Going to the Lordy". He requested an orchestra to play as he sang the poem; it was denied. As per request with the executioner, Guiteau signaled that he was ready to die by dropping the paper.
caption: Funeral music written in Garfield's honor
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