On March 14, 2001, Judge Friedman rejected Richard Mudd's contention that his grandfather should not have been tried by a military court because he was a citizen of Maryland, a state that did not secede from the Union, and thus entitled to a civil trial. John McHale, a Mudd family spokesman, said that an appeal of Judge Friedman’s ruling would be filed. On Friday, November 8, 2002, a federal appeals court dismissed the case. Judge Harry Edwards wrote that the law under which the Mudd family was seeking to have Samuel Mudd's conspiracy conviction expunged applied only to records involving members of the military. Although a military tribunal tried Mudd, he was not a member of the military.