Editing Mutiny on the Bounty (section)

=== Court martial, verdict, and sentences ===
[[File:Admiral Hood 1783.jpg|thumb|Admiral [[Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood|Lord Hood]], who presided over the ''Bounty'' court martial|alt=Painting of an elderly man in a wig, wearing naval uniform and holding a sheet of paper in his right hand. In the background two ships in full sail are visible.]]

The [[court-martial]] opened on 12 September 1792 on {{HMS|Duke|1777|6}} in [[Portsmouth Harbour]], with Vice-Admiral [[Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood|Lord Hood]], [[Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth]], presiding.{{sfn|Hough|1972|p=276}} Heywood's family secured him competent legal advisers;{{sfn|Alexander|2003|pp=204–205}} of the other defendants, only Muspratt employed legal counsel.{{sfn|Alexander|2003|p=272}} The survivors of Bligh's open-boat journey gave evidence against their former comrades—the testimonies from Thomas Hayward and John Hallett were particularly damaging to Heywood and Morrison, who each maintained their innocence of any mutinous intention and had surrendered voluntarily to ''Pandora''.{{sfn|Alexander|2003|pp=240–245}} The court did not challenge the statements of Coleman, McIntosh, Norman and Byrne, all of whom were acquitted.{{sfn|Hough|1972|p=281}} On 18 September the six remaining defendants were found guilty of mutiny and were sentenced to death by [[hanging]], with recommendations of mercy for Heywood and Morrison "in consideration of various circumstances".{{sfn|Alexander|2003|p=283}}

On 26 October 1792 Heywood and Morrison received [[Royal prerogative of mercy|royal pardons]] from King George III and were released. Muspratt, through his lawyer, won a [[stay of execution]] by filing a petition protesting that court-martial rules had prevented his calling Norman and Byrne as witnesses in his [[defense (law)|defence]].{{sfn|Dening|1992|p=46}} He was still awaiting the outcome when Burkett, Ellison and Millward were hanged from the [[yardarm]] of {{HMS|Brunswick|1790|6}} in Portsmouth dock on 28 October. Some accounts claim that the condemned trio continued to protest their innocence until the last moment,{{sfn|Alexander|2003|pp=300–302}} while others speak of their "manly firmness that&nbsp;... was the admiration of all".{{sfn|Dening|1992|p=48}} There was some unease expressed in the press—a suspicion that "money had bought the lives of some, and others fell sacrifice to their poverty."{{sfn|Dening|1992|pp=37–42}} A report that Heywood was heir to a large fortune was unfounded; nevertheless, Dening asserts that "in the end it was class or relations or patronage that made the difference."{{sfn|Dening|1992|pp=37–42}} In December Muspratt heard that he was reprieved, and on 11 February 1793 he, too, was pardoned and freed.{{sfn|Alexander|2003|p=302}}