Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-02-17
THE INSANITY DODGE.

SOM time since man named Nelson was
arrested n this city by officer Jackson for
burglary. he having entered and robbed the
house of under Sheriff j. T. Ashley, at Au-
burn. of a large amC unit of valuables. These
were mostly found upo.1 BIN at the time OF
his arrest. Mr.. jackson was witness at
the trial, which has just taken place at Au.
burn. The attorney for defendant took up
the insanity dodge as the only available line
of defense, and even this proved unavailing
The question of his sanity was first taken up
and tried as q separate matter from the crime.
Several witnesses were examined as to his
actions pointing to insanity while in jail. He
was also examined by board of physicians,
who pronounced him sane, and he was so
found and declared by the Court. He was
then tried upon the charge OF burglary, and
s verdict Of guilty was rendered without the
jury leaving the box.
During the trial of the issue of insanity an
incident occurred which seriously intertered
with the composure OF the attorney Tor de-
fsuss and also the gravity OF the Court. An
Irishman who had been an inmate of the
Jail, and was now trusty, was called to the
stand by DEFENDANTS counsel to prove the
mysterious and insane conduct of his client
while in confinement. The preliminary
questions having been concluded, he asked
the witness if he had seen the defendant act
strangely, and he replied that he had
" How did he act:" queried the elated
counsel
"Well, he would get up at the jail. window
and look out and say, Oh, there's Mount
Diablo. If / had my horse here | would ride
up and down it ); and then he would dance
wild, We know, and sing to us and make lots
of such fun"
81 Did he act crazy "
Yes, he did that yer Honor"
"When did you first notice this in him ~
"0h, by the powers, about tin days ago;
I can't say just whin, but you can tell; it
was Immediately afther you talked to him
through the bars of his cell. | niver seen it
till then"
This bombshell, accompanied by general
burst of laughter from the large audience
present, made the atmosphere extremely
muggy for the attorney, and flow of perspira-
ton began to make its appearance. After
cautiously propounding a few other questions,
he asked the witness if the defendant had
continued to exhibit these strange actions,
and was replied to that he had, and had
grown worse.
"Grown worse, has he 2" asked counsel
when did you notice the increased peculiar
tiles and insane actions?"
livery toim afther you had bin to see him.
surr.'
The storm of laughter which followed this
answer nearly annihilated the counsel, and
he would gladly have dismissed the witness
or got rid of him in any other manner, but
the situation afforded him no such avenue of
relief, and after administering a vehement
reprimand to the witness for his impertinence
and trying to be too smart" matters finally
settled down to business again, and he asked
the further question:
"Well, when you saw him act so strangely
you believed he was insane, didn't you?"
"a divil of q bit of it did L. / knew he
was maxim of it all the tonne, and that you
was putting him up to it, you was. 1 knew
he wasn't crazy thin, only to kape from San
Quentin, and by me sowl he isn't now" AT
this point the entire audience and bar joined
in the widest scene of uproarous laughter,
accompanied by the clapping of hands and
stamping of feet, which for time the Court
regarded too appropriate to re-
strain. After order had at length again been
restored, the counsel slowly arose, as if emerg-
ing from bed of sickness, and remarked that
he believed he didn't want anything further
of the witness.