New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-05-11

insufficient until it shall have shown sound
ness of mind undisturbed by any alteration
for periods graduated with view to the
gravity of the consequences contingently
involved to the public by premature re-
lease 1.-THE period of incarceration being from
one to five years.
These suggestions Of Gov. Alcorn will at
tract attention, not only in the State of Mis-
sissippi and its Legislature, but among law
yers, Lawmakers and laymen throughout the
country. In this State, for some years past,
the plea of insanity has been put forward on
behalf of the accused in nearly every case OF
murder and mansaughter that has been
brought to trial We have seen it urged, not
only in cases like that Of Cole, where there
was an alleged criminal intimacy between the
slayer's wife and his victim, but we have
recently seen it raised in cases OF
cold-blooded murder like that OF poor T0wR-
send by Reynolds in HudsOn-st, and IN
cases of murder under drunken frenzy, like
that of Mr. Voorhees, by Chambers in Brooklyn.
The ploa did not avail in the trial OF Reynolds
who was executed and though the jury rem
dered verdict Of acquittal on the plea In inc
case of Chambers, he was sent by the Judge
to the Lunatic Asylum for an indefinite period.
Ordinarily, however, as criminal lawyers have
had occasion to know, the plea has been the
most available that could be brought forward
in cases where there was no doubt OF the guilt
of the accused and in innumerable instances,
it has proved sufficient of itself to give adj
mitted criminals an absolute and immediate
release from all legal responsibility and all the
penalties of the law. There is no cause OF
surprise in the verdicts rendered by jurles In
these cases. They have heard from the Court
that if they believe the accused to be insane,
or to have been insane at the time he COM
mitted tho deed, or if they have any doubt
about the perfect sOundness OF his
mind at the moment of homicide, they
must give him the benefit Of their belief or
their doubt in verdict of acquttal. They
have listened to what probably seemed very
learned disquisitions about insanity, its nature
and manifestations, from such medical experts
as seem always ready to furnish statements
and theories of any sort that may be required
on thissubject. They have heard from these So
called "experts" of the innumerable varieties OF
insanity, of the suddenness with which anybody
may be overcome by one or other OF its FORMS
and of the temporary or often momentary dura-
ton of its irresistible attacks. The legal scientific,
and metaphysical questions involved are prob
ably altogether novel to the jury, however in
" telligent" they may be; and it is not to be
wondered at if they find themselves unable,
under their oaths, to give a verdict of guilty,
after they have been bamboozled by the scien-
tito jargon about insanity, and after they have
been warned that the law gives the culprit the
benefit of any doubt they may have been led
to entertain about its relation to the case In
hand We have often seen newspaper animad-
versions upon juries for verdicts of mot
guilty" rendered under these circumstances;
but, when we take into account the science
and the law with which they have been i'm
pressed, it is sometimes hard to see how their
verdicts could have been different.
1t is from this point of view that we appre-
ciate the great value of Gov. Alcorn's PROPOSE
ton, that whenever the plea of insanity is
raised in a case of homicide, it shall be exam
ined separately before the Judges of a Court
possessed of special Jurisdiction 1t must be as
apparent to everybody that the proof of insan-
ity ought to be established distinctively from
that of homicide as it is now evident that the
complications of these two matters in criminal
trials is one of the gravest evils of our criminal
jurisprudence. 1t must be admitted also that
the examination of plea of insanity by the
judges of Chancery Court would be
far more likely to elicit the truth than its
casual and incidental examination before Pc
tit jury. Such a court would have an advant-
age in beginning the examination with
knowledge of the legal principles and facts in
vOlved; and it would have eminent advant-
ages in its superior wisdom and greater expert
ence. 1t would not be easily bamboozled by
the evidence of psychological doctors and it
would not be liable to be affected by those
ear-spltting and Gver-breaking appeals with
which even driveling lawyers are often able to
move juries. BY making the judgments of
such body conclusive on the fact of insanity,
when it is raised, the ordinary Criminal Courts
would be relieved from the consideration of one
of the most perplexing questions of law and
metaphysics. We believe that every judge of
a Criminal Court who has given any thought to
the matter must see the advantages that would
thus accrue in the administration of justice.
Gov. AlcOrn's proposition that, in case a
person accused of homicide is found on ex-
animation to be insane, he shall be confined in
the Lunatic Asylum for a period varying from
one to five years, is in accordance with justice
and the necessities of public safety. We have
had cases of homicide before our courts in
which verdict of acquittal was given on the
plea of an insane mania which was admitted
to have been of but single moments dura-
ton; and we have had other cases in which
the insane condition was alleged to have
existed for months or years, or to have occurred
at irregular intervals during an indefinite
81 D. h. TO- Al,