The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-04-11
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In this case Sickes had no will nor intention-the
authorities cOncede the greatness of the provoca-
tlon. TO make out crime, will and intention must
be shown and these cannot exist unless the mind is
either undisturbed or moderately excited; when ex-
cited to fury, will and intention cannot exist; when
the state of fury is produced by a provocation
which the party and ought to resist, killing be-
comes crime. But if We are so constituted that
adultery is so great provocation for us to bear,
and the rage excited cannot be controlled we are
not responsible. The prosecution might as well say
that Sckles perfectly cool to say that he was
merely excited by ordinary passion, when he met
the seducer prowling about his house. Will and
intention then left him.
The proposition of the defence is that adultery is
too great provocation for mortal to bear and the
mind is in state of inaccountability, in mental
disease. So long Sickles did not originate the
provOcation, and SO far as that proyocation was
calculated to madden him, he is above the visit
alton of the human law.
This indictment said that Sickles was moved and
instigated by the devil to kill Philip Barton Key,
then and there being in the peace of this communi-
ty. Is that true2 Was Key in any just sense in
the peace OF this community? Was it Satan that
set Sickles on, it not the ennobling instinct
OF human ma ture which prompts man to protect
his own? The prosecution must prove their indict-
ment and it would not do to saw that the language
was only fgurative. When Sickles Welded to the
instincts of his nature, he yielded to the highest of
all influences
He would now examine the meaning of mental
unsoundness, and see whether Sickles was in that
state In st Hale 30 it is held that insanity is di-
vided into two forms-phrenesis and lunacy. The
insanity in both abselute-in the first per-
manent and in the second periodical.
The old law was that man to be excusable of
crime must be in all of these conditons but insani-
ty at the time must be complete and absolute In
famine rodisat; of az; =; III "
lisb the doctrine Of martial nsonit H "a, as W
There was mistake, however, here, and that rule
has given place to the modern and well-settled
intellect but also of the will. In Deans Medical
| Jurisprudence D. 49, it is laid down that mania
has two divisions, the one affecting the intellectual
| faculties, and the other emotional and personal
He would ask here could an injured husband lool
upon his wife's seducer and preserve the balance o
his mental faculties so at to make him a responsi
| BILE actor? Deane saws the denartments of III,
mind are two-fold: the intellectual. which thinks
judges and reasons; and the affective or moral de
partment in which is the residence of the nassions
If insanity seize one or the other of these danart
ments the person is relieved of resnonsihilitv n,
would refer to DID, 292 and 495 of the sams worl
for further information upon the subiect, II i
| there shown that there NAV av;et nnor9I on; - -
that department where resides the nassions an,
| emotions.
Now, if the jury had followed him, they had see,
! this in regard to the law of insanity az producn
the irresponsibility of crime, First, that in Ior
| Hales time total oblivion vos reon;rad. then h
Lord Erskine, partial insanity resulting from de
lusion was admitted: and that since then II h a
| been ascertained beyond all doubt that the maya
zine holding the emotions and passions can he en-
thraed by madness as much as the intellectual fac
ultes 1t was that point that the aduterer's prov
ocation strikes. 1t NAV not dethrone reason, bu
it puts it out of the mans power to control his ac
| tion. If man is in that state that his reaso1
! cannot control him. where was his free mora
agency?
In page 497 of the same book it will be seen tba
the mind is not perfect for the purpose of buma,
accountability, unless possessed Of reason sufficen
tn inf tba will
son. In pages 500 and $40 it will be seen that sucl
a state may exist as homicidal mania. in which
is impossible to resist the impulse to slay.
| In M 574 and 575 II is held that criminal M