The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-20 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—Youx, Dec. 18.
(Before Mr. Baron Watson.)
James Atkinson, charged with the wilful murder
of Mary Ann Scaife, at Hampsthwaite on the Ist
of August last, was again put to the bar this
morning.
His Lordship took his seat on the bench at 9
o'clock this morning, and immediately proceeded to
sum up the evidence, the details of which have
occupied the Court for the last two days. He said
—there were two issues raised in this trial to be
proved to the satisfaction of the jury : first, that a
murder had been committed by the prisoner ; and
secondly, that the plea of insanity, as exonerating
the prisoner from responsibility for the commission
of such a crime had been established. The evi-
dence on the part of the prosecution left no doubt
that a murder had been committed, and that that
murder had been committed by the prisoner.
The fact that the prisoner and the deceased were
seen together, near the place where the crime had
been committed, shortly before ; statements made
by the prisoner to his brother of what he had done
the morning after the murder ; the admissions the
prisoner had made to the police officer who appre-
hended him ; the lengthy and detailed confession
he had made before the magistrates—all clearly
proved that the prisoner had committed this murder.
But the real question for the consideration of the
jury was, whether the plea of insanity which had
been set up for the prisoner's defence was esta-
blished, and to this matter he begged their care-
ful attention. According to law every man was
presumed to be sane and to possess a sufficient
degree of reason to be responsible for his crimes,
. until the contrary was proved to the satisfaction
of the jury. To establish a defence on the ground
of insanity it must be clearly proved that at the
time of committing the act the party accused was
labouring under such a defect of reason, from
disease or imbecility of mind, as not to know the
nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if
he did know it, that he did not know he was
doing what was wrong. Before going into the
facts given in evidence to establish this plea, he
thought it right to observe that this trial had occu-
pied upwards of 20 hours, above five of which had
been taken up by speeches of counsel. When the
Legislature passed the very wise law which allowed
caura.4 to address the jury on behalf of prisoners it
had been predicted that counsel would make the
criminal courts a mere arena for the display of ad-
vocacy, and that the desire to obtain a victory, and
to win a verdict would be the great object they
would have in view rather than the investigation of
truth. He, however, called on the jury to cast
from their minds the advocacy of counsel, and
consider fairly and simply the plea set up.
Insanity might exist in the form of raving
madness, but it was not confined to that
form; it might exist in the form of idiotcy
where the person afflicted was born without any
mind whatever; or it might exist in the form of
imbecility, where the mind, originally weak, could
not be cultivated beyond a given point, and that,
according to the evidence of the medical men called
for the defence, was the condition of the prisoner.
If they were satisfied by this evidence, and that it
establishedd that the prisoner was insane at the
time he committed the offence, then he was not
responsible for his actions, and they must acquit
him on this ground. He begged to protest against
an opinion expressed by. one of the medical men
called, that the commission of murder was of itself
evidence of an unsound state of mind. The coin.
mission of murder was of itself no evidence of in-
sanity. They had had examined before them three
medical men of great eminence, and all, after a
careful examination of the prisoner, said they held
the prisoner to be of the class of insane persons
they called " imbeciles." These gentlemen had
given them the reasons on which they held the
pi ironer not to be responsible. It was found that
insanity in all its shapes was hereditary. Where
it had been found in a former generation in a family
it might be found in all generations. The effect of
this evidence was, not that bec.ause his grand-
father or other members of the prisoner's family
were insane that therefore he was, but that it cor-
roborated the evidence given on the part of the
prisoner to show that he was of imbecile mind.
The evidence of the doctors who had been so abused
last night was but a link in the chain. Standing
alone their evidence would have been extremely
weak ; it would have only been a mere opinion ;
but their evidence acquired strength when the
early history of the prisoner was known, an?
when the fact of hereditary insanity in his
family was established, a branch of the ens
to which the learned counsel for the prosecution

had never addressed one obse]

three hours on the subject.

fence set up were entirely fo)
the jury. his lordship then
evidence. In commenting u,
said he thought it was the du.
to have tendered the Wesleyai
who had attended the prisoner
the duty of the prisoner. In
truths of religion the insight .
into the state and condition of the prisoner's mind
ought to have been-set before them, that they might
be able to arrive at a
,just and honest conclusion.
The prosecntion had called two witnesses out of the
castle to rebut the prisoner's evidenee,but had thought
it rightto keep back the Wesleyan minister who at-
tended him. It was suggested, and it might be true,
that that minister assisted the prisoner in writing
the letters he had written which were relied on as
proofs of his sanity ; and, after the evidence of 1)r.
Wi▪
nslow, that he could form no opinion as to the
state of the prisoner's mind from the reading of
these letters unless he knew the circumstances
under which they were written, it was, in his
opi▪
nion, the duty of the prosecution to have called
the Wesleyan minister, to ascertain what part (if
any) he took in suggesting the subject matter cf
those letters. It might be that this gentleman
could add nothing to the evidence given on the
part of the prosecution ; but the absence of this
evidence left his mind in doubt. The jury must
say, on the whole of the facts, whether the prisoner,
when he committed the crime, which lie un-
doubtedly had done, knew what he was doing. If
they believed that he knew the difference between
right and wrong they must find him guilty ; if not,
they must acquit him on the ground of insanity.
The jury then retired, and, after an absence of
four hours, returned with a verdict of not guilty,
on the ground of insanity.
The prisoner was ordered to be confined during
her Majesty's pleasure.

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