7. Aaron Dwight Stevens was convicted for treason against Virginia as well as other charges
Aaron Dwight Stevens was a participant in John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859, and was one of two men who left the seized railroad shed under a flag of truce to negotiate a possible peaceful settlement. Instead, he was shot multiple times in the head and chest, and the militiamen who then captured him expected him to die quickly. He did not. Stevens continued to cling to life, slowly recovering from his wounds, at least partially, and he remained lucid. Stevens was sent to Charles Town when it was evident that he was not going to succumb to the wounds, for trial on the same charges as Brown, murder, inciting slaves to rebellion, and treason against Virginia.
Stevens later was tried for the charges of conspiring with slaves to revolt and treason, and during his trial, he continued to show he was lucid, despite the painful and dangerous natures of his wounds. According to Brown’s lawyer, who frequently spoke with him, Stevens had four musket balls in his body during his incarceration and trial. He did not exhibit any remorse and instead claimed that he had no sensation of guilt and that there had been “no evil intention in my heart”. Stevens continued to suffer while in custody until March 1860, when he was tried in Charles Town (now in West Virginia) and hanged on March 16, 1860.