manner_of_death george atzerodt
___MASK10___ , also known as the death penalty , is a government sanctioned practice whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime . The sentence that someone be punished in such a manner is referred to as a death sentence , whereas the act of carrying out the sentence is known as an execution . Crimes that are punishable by death are known as capital crimes or capital offences , and commonly include offences such as murder , treason , espionage , war crimes , crimes against humanity and genocide . The term " capital " is derived from the Latin " capitalis " (" of the head ", referring to execution by beheading ). Abraham Lincoln ( February 12 , 1809  April 15 , 1865 ) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his ___MASK100___ in April 1865 . Lincoln led the United States through its Civil ___MASK70___  its bloodiest ___MASK70___ and perhaps its greatest moral , constitutional , and political crisis . In doing so , he preserved the Union , abolished slavery , strengthened the federal government , and modernized the economy . Impalement , as a method of execution , is the penetration of a human by an object such as a stake , pole , spear , or hook , often by complete or partial perforation of the torso . It was used particularly in response to " crimes against the state " and regarded across a number of cultures as a very harsh form of ___MASK10___ and recorded in myth and art . Impalement was also used during wartime to suppress rebellion , punish traitors or collaborators , and as a punishment for breaches of military discipline . George Andrew Atzerodt ( June 12 , 1835 -- July 7 , 1865 ) was a conspirator , with John Wilkes Booth , in the ___MASK100___ of U . S . President Abraham Lincoln . Assigned to assassinate U . S . Vice President Andrew Johnson , he lost his nerve and did not make an attempt . He was executed along with three other conspirators by ___MASK89___ . Crucifixion is a historical method of ___MASK10___ in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden beam and left to hang for several days until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation . It is principally known from classical antiquity , but remains in occasional use in some countries . United States President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on Good Friday , April 14 , 1865 , while attending the play " Our American Cousin " at Ford ' s Theatre as the American Civil ___MASK70___ was drawing to a close . The ___MASK100___ occurred five days after the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia , General Robert E . Lee , surrendered to Lieutenant General Ulysses S . Grant and the Union Army of the Potomac . Andrew Johnson ( December 29 , 1808 July 31 , 1875 ) was the 17th President of the United States , serving from 1865 to 1869 . Johnson became president as he was vice president at the time of the ___MASK100___ of Abraham Lincoln . A Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket , Johnson came to office as the Civil ___MASK70___ concluded . The new president favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union . His plans did not give protection to the former slaves , and he came into conflict with the Republican - dominated Congress , culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives . The first American president to be impeached , he was acquitted in the Senate by one vote . Slavery in the United States was the legal institution of human chattel enslavement , primarily of Africans and African Americans , that existed in the United States of America in the 18th and 19th centuries after it gained independence and before the end of the American Civil ___MASK70___ . Slavery had been practiced in British North America from early colonial days , and was legal in all Thirteen Colonies at the time of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 . Ford ' s Theatre is a theatre in Washington , D . C ., used for various stage performances beginning in the 1860s . It is also the site of the ___MASK100___ of U . S . President Abraham Lincoln on April 14 , 1865 . After being shot , the mortally wounded president was carried across the street to the Petersen House , where he died the next morning . John Wilkes Booth ( May 10 , 1838  April 26 , 1865 ) was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford ' s Theatre in Washington , D . C . on April 14 , 1865 . Booth was a member of the prominent 19th - century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and , by the 1860s , was a well - known actor . He was also a Confederate sympathizer , vehement in his denunciation of Lincoln , and strongly opposed to the abolition of slavery in the United States . ___MASK89___ is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck . The " Oxford English Dictionary " states that ___MASK89___ in this sense is " specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck ", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain " ___MASK89___ ". ___MASK89___ has been a common method of ___MASK10___ since medieval times , and is the official execution method in numerous countries and regions . The first account of execution by ___MASK89___ was in Homer ' s " Odyssey ". In this specialised meaning of the common word " hang ", the past and past participle is " hanged " instead of " hung ".