[5] He claimed he was later paroled by President Lincoln because of pleas for mercy from his mother but this was merely an anecdote he often repeated to dinner guests, according to historian Roger Long.

[citation needed] Mr. Long explains in detail what the evidence shows in an article he wrote in the December 1994 edition of Civil War Times.

[citation needed] Mr Long's article includes interesting details about Lurton's service as well as possible reasons for the anecdote he was so fond of repeating.

[3] On December 13, 1909, President William Howard Taft nominated Lurton as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court,[6] to succeed Rufus W. Peckham.

"[citation needed] Lurton's tenure on the Court was brief, as he served only four years before dying in Atlantic City, New Jersey of a heart attack on July 12, 1914.