To Prove His Client's Innocence.. This Lawyer Shot Himself

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During trials, lawyers do not hesitate to fiercely defend their clients in hopes of saving them from harsh penalties that may sometimes reach the death penalty, at a time when many trials have entered history thanks to lawyers who fought valiantly to defend their clients and resorted to presenting strange arguments and evidence.

Among these trials is the case of the accused Thomas McGehan, who miraculously escaped the death penalty after his lawyer, Clement Vallandigham, accidentally killed himself.

Additionally, Clement Vallandigham was born on July 29, 1820, in the New Lisbon area of Ohio to a modest family. After studying at home for a while, he moved to study at Jefferson College in Pennsylvania, from which he was expelled in 1841 due to a disagreement with the college president, without obtaining a degree.

To continue his education in law, this young man borrowed a sum of $500 from his close friend Edwin Stanton, who later became the Secretary of War in President Abraham Lincoln's government.

Despite their friendship and their inclination towards the Democratic Party at that time, Vallandigham and Stanton had differing views on the issue of slavery; while Stanton called for the abolition of this practice, Vallandigham supported its preservation due to its economic benefits and the reliance of many states on it.

In addition to his legal career, Clement Vallandigham had a notable political career; between 1845 and 1847, he was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives. In 1858, the Democrat Clement Vallandigham was elected as a representative from Ohio to the U.S. House of Representatives, a position he held until 1863.

Vallandigham was also active during the Civil War, as part of a group of Democrats who strongly opposed President Abraham Lincoln's policies and opposed the continuation of the war, accusing Lincoln's administration of igniting it. In May 1863, this Democratic politician was arrested by Union forces and brought before a military court, which convicted him of disloyalty to the country and sentenced him to imprisonment until the end of the war.

Later, Vallandigham received a pardon and fled to Canada before returning to American soil at the end of the Civil War to dedicate the remainder of his life to law practice.

In one of his most famous cases, Vallandigham defended the accused Thomas McGehan in a murder case that could have led to the latter's execution. In this case, McGehan was accused of killing the victim Tom Myers with a gunshot during a dispute at a bar.

In this context, Vallandigham was convinced of his client's innocence and spoke about Tom Myers accidentally shooting himself with a fatal bullet while trying to pull his gun from his pocket as he stood up. To prove this hypothesis, the lawyer attempted to reenact the scene in front of the defense team in his hotel room in Lebanon, Ohio.

However, unintentionally, Vallandigham chose a gun he thought was empty and placed it in his pocket before he began to reenact the events. As he pulled it from his pocket, the gun got caught in his clothes, resulting in a bullet being fired that lodged in his abdomen, leaving him to struggle for hours before he passed away on June 17, 1871, at the age of fifty.

The incident of Clement Vallandigham's death served to validate his viewpoint and his success in defending his client. As a result, American authorities released the accused Thomas McGehan, who escaped execution thanks to his lawyer's sacrifice.