District of Columbia City Hall Scott Key, (1779–1843), and was sentenced to a mental institution. The building was also the site of the 1867 trial of John Surratt, an alleged conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln who was later acquitted. However, Charles J. Guiteau, the assassin of President James A. Garfield, was convicted at the courthouse in 1882. The Old City Hall was the scene of a fugitive slave trial known as the "Pearl incident," which was the largest single escape by slaves attempted in U.S. history. Two men were convicted in 1848 of attempting to free more than 70 slaves by sailing them
Charles J. Cooper commercial, and civil rights litigation. Cooper led the legal team for the defendant-intervenors in "Hollingsworth v. Perry," defending California Proposition 8 in 2008, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. He argued this case before the US Supreme Court. Charles has been retained by Attorney General, Jeff Sessions for counsel in response to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Charles J. Cooper Charles 'Chuck' J. Cooper (born 1955) is an appellate attorney and litigator in Washington, D.C., where he is a founding member and chairman of the law firm Cooper & Kirk, PLLC. He was named by