On November 14, 1881, Charles Guiteau went on trial for the assassination of President James A. Garfield.



The trial of Guiteau, a probable paranoid, pointed up problems with nineteenth century law's treatment of insanity; Guiteau's trial is also problematic in retrospect as Garfield's death was immediately attributable not to Guiteau, but to Garfield's doctors who - before sterilization was well understood - repeated probed his wound with unwashed hands while searching for an embedded bullet.