The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1881-11-23

IN
..,,ort saws: There was apparently no
s;rinution Of the crowd ut the City Hall
,sis morning. The prisoner was brought
IN in the van, attended by his guard OF
wounted police, at . o'clock.
The court was called - order at 1905
o'clock. and few minutes later the pris-
,,cr was brought in and the jury roll was
c,lled. Guitcau settled at once 90 his news
MIR. ScoviiIo's Address.
Mr.. Scovilc then took his stand on the
r,,le place before the jury and resumed the
mech which he began yesterday. There
Ma. he said, considerable prejudice against
tse defence Of insanity; for that reason nc
had asked the jurymen rs 10 their opinions
i, that head. There had been cases, he
.siA. where the public were satisfied that
criminals had escaped punishment by that
offence. Il was quite aS probable, how
ever. that this defence had prevailed in
c,s,s where il was justly raised. quite as
oiren. as 1t had been made the means OF
Getting guilty men or. lie expected the
inrymcn would, however, give due cOnsid-
er,;ion 10 this evidence. The defendant
WAS himself before them, and OF course
thew could not help being influenced by
their personal Judgment OF the men; that
was not exactly the proper thing for them
70 do: they must keep their minds open TO
evidence and not take their own opinion.
THIS NATTER or INSANITY,
be said. was not a new defence by any
Means. bat there had been changein pub
he ouini0n--l change All the while progress
Ing to better things. Two hundred and
ffv year, ago, in England, it was the law
thsf The defence OF insanity should not pre-
vail unless it was shown the defendant was
10 better than 4 wild beast. Public opin-
ion and all authority then upheld that rs a
rule bu; there had been progress in Eng
land since that day in favor OF a more en-
Hghiencd and careful consideration OF this
thing. About 1890. in England. there was
q new rule established-that, In order to
show that q prisoner was responsible, ii
mus, be shown that he knew the crime was
wrong-thlt he was doing wrong act. rs
this meiter has been developed there has
been al advance even upon that position,
and TINT was this; That although 4 person
knew the act was wrong, he might be i'm
peeled forward by an 0yerpOwcring i'm
pulse. At this point many OF the courts
rested.
NOT ALWAYS A SHAM OF DODGE.
Il was real defence they offered. and
thc Jury could not afford 10 ignore il.
People who were not experts could not
always Judge OF these eases; neither could
experts always pass upon them. These cases
do not 20 by prccedcnts. Only few days
ago an insane woman in an asylum In Ken
tucky was released and sent home rs
cured. After being ont two weeks, sud-
denly, without prcmonition, she pounded
the head OF her little grandchild to
q Jelly. and cut il oil with knife
That woman was discharged rs cured.
showing that experts were not Infallible.
They always made the mistake on one side,
stating that a person who was really in
sane was sane. They were never known
10 have pronounced sane man insane.
The insanity was not always manifest. A
case OF absolute where the
reason is entirely gone-was somewhat
rare. He had report from one Of the
gentlemen now in couTt--a superintendent
Of an asylum-whO says his institution
was visited by thousand people month,
and a most annoying thing was their con-
slant questioning n TO the insanity of peO-
pie who appeared 10 them rational. He
complained that the public did not under
stand ihe subject.
Mr.. sCOvILIE'S DEFINITION or INSANITY.
Mr.. Scoville quoted other cases of in
sanity. As he understood il, the definition
Of insanity was that condition i'm which =
mans mind was "Off it, base" who had
not good reasoning facultes-nO what
might be called imbecility-but when he
come to do anything in life he comes short,
for there is something lacking-thc ability
70 reason. For instance, he starts out TO
buy great newspaper. Others know that
a newspaper costs great deal OF money;
that il requires long experience and the best
Of ability to manage. He thinks he can do 1t.
and be starts out without any friends or
money. lie says, - am going TO buy that
newspaper" lie is in earnest. There Is
not one single thing in the case that we
call reasonable. He is not positively crazy,
but there j. that lacking IN the mind that
totally units him for business. He is UNI
able 10 understand that he can't succeed.
There may be only slight defect in the
mind. 4 man starts ont with false pro-
position; he begins to reason from 1t, ana
nom that time on reasons rs correctly as
any one could, yet, having started out with
false premises, his conclusions are false.
is GUITEAU sHANNNGf
Il would appear. said Mr.. Scoyille, in
Evidence that the defendant knew nothing
about insanity-had never studied the sub
Iceland yet il was said that he was slmll-
hitting insanity. Ii the newspapers re-
ported correctly, the DiStrict Attorney
himself had said the man was insane.
Credible newspapers had also given cur
fency 10 such statements.
Here Guiteau interrupted Mr.. Scoville
and said 81 never feign; | act myself
oul, sane or insane"
Mr.. ScOyille said IL would be shown that
y vas trait OF the prisoners family never
70 fcign anything. lie (Alr. Scoyille) had
sid that the defendant was insane when
De was boy; when the President was shot
be said ct once that the man was crazy. lie
understood President Garfield and Secre- I
afy Blaine had both expressed their belieI
tlli The man was insane.
Dstrlct-AttOrney Corkhill here inter- I
Iipied the speaker, and said that President
FAIRFIELD had never said such thing, ana .
Seereiqry Blaine never stated such thing 4
ne had stated under oath that he believed ,
ne prisoner was sane.
Nr. scoyile said what he stated he had I
tafnedfrom newspapers. Persons simulate
ny insanity usually feigned forcetfuness, I
Dal this did not appear in Guitcan's ease;
another thing was that persons thus slmu- /
Ased generally seemed TO become insane 1
" a sudden attack and then kept insane.
mat was not the ease With really insane
people. Some days they appeared perfect
rational. A sane man attempting 10
palm himself OF az insane did not uSn-
Ny understand that. Another common
saing with these pretendcrs was that when
spoken 10 they hesitated little--they ala
~. speak right up as an insane person
H. WANTED THE JURY TO JUDGE
whether what Gulteau did were genuine