My question is how Brown, who was not born in Virginia and had never lived in Virginia, could be tried and executed for treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia? How does that work? Also since it was an attack on a Federal armory then why wasn’t it a federal crime and not a state crime?
Brown was charged with treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, multiple first-degree murders, and inciting an insurrection among Virginia slaves. Why the Federal Government opted to allow Virginia to try Brown is beyond me. Brown was interviewed on the 18th by the VA governor Wise. He ordered Brown be charged under VA law. Evidently no Federal authorities, other than Lee were present. Looks like the Feds sorta played the Pontius Pilot routine with John Brown raid.
Brown had been staying at the Kennedy farmhouse on the Maryland side. He left behind papers there detailing his plan for armed insurrection, attack on the armory, slave rebellion, basically a lot of stuff that removed any doubt as to his intentions.
He was certainly guilty of several murders, the first being a free black man who worked for the B&O railroad, so he would have been prosecuted by Virginia for that anyway. Why the court included treason against Virginia isn’t clear to me, although Virginia’s citizens were his intended targets and his plot constituted a guerrilla invasion. Maybe prosecutors liked to overcharge even then. The treason charge apparently was based upon mutual responsibilities between the states, nullifying the defense that he was not a citizen of Virginia.