Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1881-09-15
professional fre-raiser, detection be-
comes almost impossible.
THE LAW IN THE CASE.
Opinion of Learned Criminal Law


Opinion of Learned Criminal Law
yer.
A Philadelphia special to the Chica-
60 Inter-Ocean says: Ex-District At
torney Furman Sheppard, one of the
most learned criminal lawyers in the
state Of Pennsylvania, was asked to-
day how Guiteau's case could bs re-
garded if the president should die at
this late date. "Why," he replied,
'there is no manner of doubt in the
case. If the president dies Guiteau
will be tried for murder. In the eve
Of the law premeditated act that &C
CELEBRATES the death of a human being
is punishable as murder. The news
paper arguments have failed to state
that point which is thoroughly well es-
tablished in law and thoroughly rea-
sonable, no man has the right to dis
pense single moment of fellow be-
ing's life. AS a general principle it
needs to be proven that the death must
have resulted from the malicious or
negligent conduct of the defendant
through the ordinary agency of phys
ical law, and must not have been
caused by the interposition of an indie
pendent human will not acting in con-
cert with the defendant, or by extraor-
binary casualties. In this case Guiteau
fires bullet with intent to kill. The
bullet fails to accomplish the imme-
date desire of the assassin, but infiicts
wound which superinduces other
consequences, which, in the chain of
cause and effect, leading up to death,
the man firing the bullet is, in the eye
of the law, the condition by which the
regular sequence of the phenomena of
human life is changed. If the wound
causes fever which produces death or
the principle is imputable to the
wound; take case: A man intend
ing to kill fires a bullet and iniicts a
wound not ordinarily fatal or danger
Gus, but in particular case produced
lockjaw and results in death. 1t is a
good law that the assassin should be
held for murder. The law presumes
that every man intends the conse-
quences of his illegal act. 1t has even
been held that when the deceased per-
son died from blow fatal only be-
cause of bad general health, the latter
fact was immaterial, because if the
prisoner was so unfortunate as to ac-
celerate death, he must answer for it."
"HOw does intervening medical neg
ligence affect the caseP"
'If the wounded person. after the
stroke, is placed in charge of surgeon,
who, in probing the wound or other
wise operating upon the patient, imme-
diately causes death, it would probably
be held to have introduced a new re-
spOnsible cause between the wound
and the death, thus breaking the casu-
al connection. But if the surgeon.
following the usual course of practice,
occasions death while endeavoring to
heal the wound, the person infiicting
the wound would still be held liable.
For he who does an unlawful act is
responsible for all the consequences
which naturally follow from his un-
lawful act; and further, it is no de-
Tense to show that he might have re-
covered had higher degree of medi-
cal skill been employed. Negligence on
the part of the physician must be
shown to have been the direct cause of
death, independent of the wound he
was treating. In the case of the pres
ident, every element of malice, the de-
liberate determination to kill, is pres
ent. The wounded man manifests a
series of symptoms, the natural conse-
quences of the wound. A condition
OF the blood is brought about which
aggravates the symptoms and finally
results in death. This completes the
chain of cause and effect directly to
the first shooting and makes the man
who shot legally and morally response
BILE for murder as much as though the
bullet had been instantaneously fatal"
"Would slight bruise, resulting in
decease, make the person who inflicted
it indictable for homicideP"
"Assuredly yes. Take a very mild
instance in fight; A strikes B a blow
in the face, bruising it, and e1ysipelas
supervenes. b dies, possibly on ac-
count of improper and unskillful
treatment. A had no purpose of slay
ing, but nevertheless could be indicted
and convicted of manslaughter, even
though the unskillfulness of the sur
geon was set up for defense, unless it
could be shown that the treatment So
far accelerated the disease as to be-
come the responsible cause. In nv six
years of official service as prosecuting
officer, unskillfulness Of surgeons was
repeatedly set up as a defense for
prisoners on trial for homicide. Ply
sicians are examined a, experts, and
the skill and treatment of the attending
physicians condemned. The defense,
however, awaited nothing"