All of them faced the death penalty for what they did. The rather brisk pace at which things progressed from the actual even to a trial is rather concerning. However, this does not mean that the wrong decision was made. Another concerning matter is that the group had a hard time finding counsel. However, they eventually succeeded in finding a lawyer in the form of John Adams. To state the obvious, this was a fairly interesting choice for Adams given that he was defending men who were accused of murdering five people. Once things did get going, there was indeed a delay issued for the trial so that feelings and emotions were not at the high pitch that they were at in March of that year. Indeed, the trial for Preston did not start until October and the soldiers had their trial in November. Everything was wrapped up by early December. Preston pled not guilty but never testified in his own defense. The overall strategy of the trial from the defense's perspective was to portray that Preston did not order the shooting and thus should not be convicted for the murders. The prosecution did not help themselves all that well given that the fifteen witnesses called gave conflicting accounts as to whether Preston ordered the deaths or not. By contrast, the defense portrayed a picture where the soldiers were acting based on being harassed and intimidated by the crowd. Beyond that, the defense made it a point to center on who gave the "fire" order. Preston ended up being acquitted on the basis of reasonable doubt, which was the first time that term was ever used in an American court [footnoteRef:3]. [2: Bostonmassacre.net.…
Boston Massacre Brutal Murder or Self-Defense? Boston Massacre is known as the cornerstone of Revolutionary war which resulted into a series of events causing changes in the world's map. On face value, it can be perceived as an incident in which the innocent citizens were murdered by the tyrant government but a careful analysis would reveal that basic reasons of the Boston Massacre are rooted in the years of tension and strain