St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-09-14
Drunkenness as an Excuse for
Crime.

Judging from the verdicts of iuries,
the decisions of courts and the teStimO-
nv of ''society" one would infer that a
man who puts an enemy into his mouth
which steals away his brains and then
commits crime is more eXcusa-
BILE than he who in the sudden impulse
of passion lifts his hand and deals in
iurics to the man who has. insulted
him. The latter has been mastered by
his surprise and his repentance is as
sudden as his crime. The former has
been coOlly going onward, perhaps for
years, repeating daily the sin of which
he has ceased to repent, and putting
himself in such condition of body
and mind as to be ready on the slight
est prOvocatiOn to break the laws of
the land and iniure his fellows. The
common law of England which has be-
come the law of this country has al
ways held that drunkenness is an ar
tificial, voluntarily contracted madness
which depriving men of their reason
puts them in temporary frenzy and
is an aggravation of the offense rather
than an excuse for any criminal mis-
behavior. "a drunkard," says Sir
Edward Coke. "who is UOluntdriuS de
mon hath no privilege thereby, but
what hurt or i'll soever he doth his
drunkenness doth aggravate it," A
law of Pittacus in Greece enacted that
he who committed Il crime when drunk
should receive Il double punishment,
one for the crime itself and the other
for the ebriety which prompted him TO
commit it. The earlier statutes of
Massachusetts regarded the first excess
of an inebriate rs criminal and pun
ished it as crime, but our present
laws only allow a fine for the first Of
| Tense and fine or imprisonment for
the second. Our judges, taking their
tone from this moderation, are very
apt to ''let off, persons who have COM
mitted another Otfense against the law
with a mild punishment when the eX-
cuse of intoXication is offered.
A case in point occurred i'll Pittstield
recently, where Justice Gamwell let Il
young man off with Il fine and costs
who had ''tal>en enough liquor to make
him mean and ugly" and in that con-
dition kicked pail of berries out of an
old mans hand and put his finger out
of joint, on the young rutlian's plead
ing that he would not have done it had
he not been drinking Under the
common law and the statutes of this
and other states this violent depriving
IA man of the use of one of his fingers
is a crime called mayhem and punisha-
BILE by imprisonment OF by a fine and
imprisonment, and Judge who listens
to such an excuse as intOXicatiOn for
so grave an Otfense, degrades the
majesty of the law and brings his own
office and himself into disrespect
Il Nearly every day we read of, if we do
not witness, some brute, who, for the
sake of base personal qualification
gets himself into such "a conditiOn-be-
comes the voluntary demon" of Lord
CoEe-that he lfas to vent his passions
on all about him, beats his wife anC
children almost, if not quite, to death
, and, if they are only manned, he is ''le
off " with Il fine, or, if they are killed
the chances are about equal that ;
2 maudlin jury will either acquit him, o
r find him guilty with a recommendation
to mercy Beyond all controversy
, drunkenness is only regarded arigh
| when it is considered and treated as
e crime GAS vicious and ineXcusabl
selfishness, hateful to man, abhOrret
- of God, destructive of virtue and ruin
; GUS w I'ipI'ih'NS- ~ i'''H N'b'''h i''''ii 80
E the sin and misery and infamy of
f crime" and should be so treated b.
t Judges, iuries and the community; an,
not until then will it cease to he com
e mon and its baneful influence so ex
: tensive. Is it wonderful that Who'll
Y communities are stirred to their foun
: dations and wholesale laws enacte
q against the manufacture and sale q
= Intoxicating liquors when even in sue
Il a state as Massachusetts religion, phi
lanthropy and all the best interests al
r set ut defiance by the passions of thos
q who drink, and the interest of thOs
= who supply, and the cowardice or in
o competency of those who execute til
q law -[Snringtield Repnblican.