Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-01-20
GUT EAU.
The Decision Of the New
York Court.
sooVILLE RESUMES HIS SPEECH
He Denounces the Conduct of Dis
trict Attorney Corkhill.

IACt &~ItO1ASy SOIRi1lAs
ESPECIAL BY TELEGRAPH TO THE REcoRD-UxIoSl
WASHINGTON, January 19sh.-The Court
opened at the usual hour.
As soon as Guiteau reached his seat he de-
livered himself of the following speech, with
pompous effort at oratorical effect: "The
decision of the New York Court of Appeals
comes with so much force at the present mo-
ment that desire to call attention to it. It
comes with great grace from the Empire
from that grand old State of the Re-
public that sends forth the brains,
the money and commerce of the nation.
1t is great step forward of the law
of insanity. Heretofore the law has
been that the burden of proof was
on the defendant, but the Court of Appeals,
with grand magnanimity, says that the bur-
den of proof is on the prosecution to prove
that man not only committed this act, but
also that he was sane at the time he commit
ted it. In the name Of justice, and in the
name of the American people, and in the
name of the American judiciary, desire to
thank those gentlemen of the Court of Ap-
peals Of the State of New York"
scovILLE CONTINUES.
Scoville resumed his argument, reading
from the evidence of several witnesses who
were at the depot and saw the shooting and
the subsequent arrest of Guiteau, his object
being to show that the prisoner was per-
fectly calm and cool, and in condition of
nerves and intellect at variance with the
hypothesis of sanity under such circum-
| stances.
Scoville again complained that the prose.
cution had failed to call detective McEifresh
to the stand, whose evidence would have
been of service to the prisoner.
Guiteau-They came to my cell and tried
to draw me out. l talked with them little,
and told them about the Deity and my in
spiration. and now they suppress all that evil
dence. That shows the iniquity of their
prosecution, and God Almighty will curse
every one in this prosecution, in my opinion.
After short pause, the prisoner added:
"That reminds me to say that Judge Porter
has been pretending to be sick for two days.
sick. hope the Lord will take him down
below quick, and then send for Corkhill."
ATTACKING THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY.
AS Scoville proceeded Corkhill made fire.
| quent, as the speaker evidently thought,
sighting comments, until finally becoming
irritated, Scoville turned upon the District
| Attorney and denounced, in scathing terms,
his unfairness la the matter of producing as
evidence mutilated letter, written by the
prisoner and interpreted by Corkhill.
Guiteau-It was friendly allusion to
President Arthur that he cut out, The mean,
dirty whelp.
Scoville had running fire with the prose.
cution as his speech proceeded. His motive,
he said, was not to shield the Guiteau family,
but to save the American nation and Judiciary
from the disgrace of hanging an insane man.
He denounced Corkhill for gratuitously in.
sulting DIR. North by asking if he was ever
arrested for a crime.
Corkhill stated that he himself had tried
North in this Court.
Recess.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
After recess, Scoville continued his review
of the evidence, and claimed that the pris-
oner had been free, frank and outspoken in
all things that he has conversed at the Jail
with every one the prosecution sent there,
and always without reserve, and had he been
sane and playing part he would not have
done so.
TIE ABzENCE OF MOTIVE.
Commenting upon, as he claims, the ab-
sence of motive On Guiteau's part, Scoville
said: You cannot fnd an instance in his
tory, you cannot suppose case, where man
40 years Of age, who has never before COM
mitted crime, who has never for an hour
associated with criminals or bad people, who,
on the contrary, has actually sought the 80
ciety not only of the better class of people,
but Christian people-you can't conceive of
such o man committing such crime without
motive. Nothing but the theory of insanity
can possibly account for such an act as Gui
te esu's.
Scoville then discussed the assumption that
Guiteau might have been actuated by de-
sire for revenge, and argued the inprobability
of such an assumption, from the fact that if
any ground for i'll will existed on Guiteau's
part, it was against Secretary Blaine, aud
according to the inexplicable laws Of mind it
would have been executed against him.
There can't possibly be shown, said SEQ
vile, any i'll will on bis part toward President
Garfield.
Colonel Corkhill-You seem to forget that
he killed him.
Without noticing this comment, Scoville
next took up the hypothesis that the crime
was committed from an overpowering desire
for notoriety, and claimed that history failed
to point out case where such crime was
committed purely and simply from such mo-
tives, and that it was Incompatible with rea-
son, and impossible for the human mind to
conceive of such motive sufficient to in
duce any sane man to commit such crime.
That he killed the President as a disap-
pointed office seeker is mere than improbable,
said Scoville, for had he brooded over some
wrong of this kind something of his disap-
pointment would have leaked out. He would
have said something in his intercourse with
other people indicating his disappointment or
bad temper on the subject. Nothing would
have been more natural in the interval before
he made up his mind to kill the President.
Guiteau-Oh that's all bosh about my be-
ing disappointed office-seeker. After the
1st of june my whole mind was on the politi
cal situation, and | wouldn't have taken q
Cabinet position if it had been offered me.
Looking up from his paper few minutes
later, Guiteau called out, with satisfied air
Porter is sick. 1 guess the Lord is attend
ing to him."
AN EXPLANATION.
Scoyille alluded to the taunt of the prose-
cution that the experts for the defense had
gone back on them, and said, in explanation,
that when he reached Washington he did not
know the name of single expert. He knew
that Guiteau was crazy, but how to show it
to the country, and to convince jury Of his
countrymen, was the burden that pressed
him. Then came letter from Dr. Wor-
cester, that little man from the great State
of Massachusetts,, the State that holds the
Athens of America. He wrote that if
halt what was said of Guiteau was true,
he was crazy. DR.. Worcester had had
great experience in treating insanity, and
had written book which was an &C
cspted authority as textb book, the first work,
he said, by an American author on insanity.
He said, further. that he wanted to do all he
could to save the nation from the disgrace of
hanging an insane man, even if his victim
happened to be the President of the United
States. l felt said Scoville, great weight
lifted from nv heart [ thnIlpht "Thare is