The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-06-27

son Win uellFlum ueuenb is lrrespOnslOle'
And this doctrine prevails in all the states,
and numberless are the cases that have been
tried and acquitted under the consormatory
rulings as must be known to every lawyer
All this may be improper law, if you choose,
interest of the culprit than any that to-day
obtains in France or Germany. And it is n
law likewise, be it admitted, under whose
observance many an individual thought by
the popular mind to have escaped convic-
ton on a technically, has been subsequently
shown to be confirmed lunatic on some
subjects though perhaps rational about 9TH
ers. Ifthese things be so, it logically follows
that the defendant has right to have his
case tried by expert evidence or by hypothet'
ical method. Insanity is not necessarily a
continuous condition. In Currie's case 1t was
undertaken to show that he was insane
from deiirum tremeps Mt the time of the
shooting. The shn wing was satisfactory to
the tribunal selected under the law for the
purpose, and it is a wrong to them, a wrong
to the experts, wrong 10 the people of the
state, wrong to Texas jurisprudence for the
press to pursue the course it has thus far
pursued. Ifany one knows Of any corrup-
ton or bribery, any disqualification of fudge,
Jury or expert, lot him proclaim it, and ours
will be the first hand to aid in branding and
doubly damning the corruption and the
corrupt one. But in the name of justice and
fairness stop these insinuations, this wholesale
defamation of Texas conduct Texas juries,
Texas doctors and Texas people. when it is so
evident that any other judge, jury, doctors or
people in any other state, under n
similar condition of affairs, must per-
force have done the same thing.
We confess to feeling very much like many
of our brothers feel, viz: surprise at the law
and disappointment at the result; for we had
never before had our attention directed to
the law, nor thought Of Currie save linked
with crime and penitentiary life, but we do
not propose that our discretion and our inn
partially shall be subordinated to our feel
ings. We have the deepest sorrow for the
state because OF the homicidal act, detesta-
ton for the deadly deed, yet tho fiat of the
law rides supreme with us over the force of
feeling. We concede that we cannot judge
of Currie's insanity as we'll as could the eX-
perts in the light of scientific truth and in the
face of examples. The ordinary idea, on
contemplation of these things, vanishes as n
mote into imperceptible air. We can con-
ceive of the human mind, rs has been repre-
sented, rs sort of many stringed instrument
which, while it requires every chord in a
healthful state to create a perfect harmony
yet where one may be strained or
broken the others will nevertheless when
touched give forth their unimpaired tones.
We recall that this was true of Tasso, the
author of Jerusalem Delivered who COM
posed so many of his exquisite gems when
the mental chord had snapped; of Lucretius,
too, who wrote in that impaired state, his DE
Rsvrum Natura; of Cruden, who issued his
Concordance from the walls of his luckless
prison, and of Aiken who gave us his great
Biography from an insane asylum. w 18th
some of these kinds of idocyncrsses, history
and daily life have made us, alas only too
familiar, but those nice determinations OF
characteristics on which the question OF de.
lirium hangs, the nature of our profession
and its habits and associations have not afford
ed us the opportunities and facilities to speak
about as advisedly as those learned in the la"
Of medical jurisprudence, or as sitting Juror;
who have listened to its expositons. In the
meditation halls of justice or the quiet OF the
sanctum we are not so hungry for conviction
so shylockian thirsty for blood as to deny
to prisoner the benefit of doubt because o
prejudice or fear of criticism. Such pref
udices and such fears may be il
full copartnership in some little village
in the frontier nurseries of bigotry and igno
norance, but they should find no Judgment il
the minds or breasts Of the residents of al
improved condition whose advancing ban
ner, bear heinsignia of principle and human
itarianism and not of prejudice and folly. II
literacy may snap its fingers and curl its lip
at those refuements of civilization and nice
ties of justice which it is pleased to tern
bubbles, but we prefer yet awhile rather t
make our obeisance to the opinions OF tn
learned and the skilled. And yet we mus
admit that when we witness such state @
things as that the life of man, no matte
where, may be taken by his fellow while tn
remedy is so remote or the penalty SO precs
rious; when we see the tree of error flourish
ing like green palm, when we observe ths
an outrage may by some metaphysical cor
tortion go unwhipt of justice on the propsic
ton that better ninety-nine guilty men get fire
than that one innocent person be wronge
when we see truth and error, right ana wrons
in such fearful ENHANCEMENT; when we sc
the counterfeit bend of Esau, with the voiC
of Jacob in outrageous imposition; when "
see this modern doctrine of insan
impulse, this scientific, this hypC
thetical insanity cheating the gallows c
the penitentiary of SO many OF its dues, an