Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe, by the Hampton Roads harbor of tidewater Virginia, until his release on bail on May 13, 1867. During his confinement, the United States federal government prepared to bring him to trial for treason and complicity in the assassination of US President Abraham Lincoln. Davis could not be tried in the Commonwealth of Virginia until the federal court was reestablished there, but by the time the U.S. Circuit Court judges were ready in May 1867, the federal government decided that the outcome of a trial before a local citizen jury was far too uncertain and dropped the indictment. In November 1868, Davis was brought to trial under a new indictment, but federal lower court judges disagreed and the case was referred to the Supreme Court. Andrew Johnson, the seventeenth president, issued a general amnesty in December 1868 and the Supreme Court entered a nolle prosequi, freeing Davis.