04-23-21 I didn't know it was loaded

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Clement Laird Vallandigham, born in New Lisbon, Ohio in 1820; prominent member of the "copperhead" movement (that's how I found him) who was outspoken enough to get arrested and exiled for it in 1863.
https://history.house.gov/Historica.../Representative-Clement-Vallandigham-of-Ohio/
https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/V/VALLANDIGHAM,-Clement-Laird-(V000008)/

he accidentally shot himself to death, while attempting to prove that it was, indeed, possible to accidentally shoot oneself to death.
...and in court, no less.
I wonder if, in addition to the Darwin award for assuming a gun was empty, he also won that last case?
Does anyone know?
 
Answer: Clement Vallandigham. He was born in New Lisbon, Ohio (now known simply as Lisbon) and led the Copperhead faction.

Vallandigham was a member of a legal team defending a man accused of murder. Vallandigham contended that the man who was shot had, in fact, pulled the trigger on himself while attempting to extract his pistol from his clothing. In trying to demonstrate this with what he thought was an unloaded pistol, Vallandigham inflicted a mortal wound on himself.

For whatever consolation it may have been, the other members of the legal team were able to use Vallandigham’s demonstration to convince the jury to find their client not guilty.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Clement_Vallandigham&oldid=1012981281

https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Clement_Vallandigham
 
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