Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-01-17
YOUNG NUTS REVENGE.
THE DEFENSE LAUNCHES TTs
PLEA OF INSANITY.

Mr.. Playford Outlines the Events Which
Led to the Tria1-The Family PhysI-
clan Testifies to the Weakness of the
Prisoners Mind and is Corroborated
by His Relatives.
! PITTsBURG, Pa, Jan. 16.-The admis-
sion to the Mutt trial to-day was by tick
/ cts, so that the crowd outside the doors
was greater than within. There was a
/ larger number of ladies present than
heretofore among the spectators, all of
whom were evidently of the well-to-do
| classes. Mrs. Mutt and her daughter Liz
zie were early on hand and
occupied their accustomed seats. Hon.
Daniel Voorhees, was also in his
place. He viii sum up for
the defense. Promptly at 9 30 O'Clock the
court opened. Mr.. Playf0rd, for the de-
fense, began the proceedings by outlining
the case, He said: "It has truly been
said that prosperity Is a test Of friendship.
On the altar OF friendship / cast my offer
Ing this morning, and am here to defend
| that boy, whose father was my friend be-
fore he was killed. This is remarkable
case, and it has been conducted in a re-
markable way. We do not dispute or
deny the killing. Has it occurred to the
jury that it wolld be singular il we should
try to show that there is nothing singu-
lar in the fact that a citizen was
shot down in the quiet of the evening
without moving cause? Does it not,
gentlemen. show that there was an un-
natural cause-an insanitys The Com
mOnwealth, had they so minded, could
have shown you that a terrible, disgrace
ful scene had preceded it. Young Mutt
knew not at the moment what he was
doing, and that we shall prove. We shall
show you by the evidence that at the time
he did the deed the past wrongs and out
RACES upon his family had made him un-
able to control his will: that he
was pressed into the commission
OF an act by a controlling influence that
was oyerpowering, is the defense in this
case. An influence tnat he could not
resist. is our declaration of his part in the
deed performed. We will show you the
circumstances that preceded the shooting
his atfectiOnate nature, love of home,
devotion tOfather, mother and sisters, We
VIII show the deep interest he had taken
in all home projects, and how after the
murder Of his father that the boy was
changed. How he became melancholy,
and said that his entire life cur
rent seemed changed. But up to
the trial of Dukes the boy knew moth
ing about the terrible letters that Dukes
had written, casting terrible aspersions
upon his sister, bankrupting his family,s
homer as well as destroying its head
When the boy heard of those terrible let
ters, the most damnably horrible that a
human being ever penned, his mind gave
way. He walked the floor all night long,
weeping; his appetite fOrsOok him; rea-
son was OVerthrown. Not for fifty years
has man been convicted for slaying his
sisters seducer, and there is no case par
allel to this. No man who had committed
such crime as that of Dukes could 20
unpunished. Dukes knew it himself.
No twelve Indians would hang boy for
taking in his hands the Justice that be-
lOnged to him, and you, gentlemen of the
jury, will not add to the sisters destruc-
tion and the fathers murder the murder
Of the brother and orphan SON."
DIR. Smith Fuller, the first witness, teS-
titled that he had attended the Mutt fam
lily Il years, and had treated the defend
ant several times when sick; that
he always believed him to be
mentally deficient and without sound
mental attributes, and that he would be
inclined to harbOr feelings of enmity
which would increase with time, and that
he would probably become q monOma.
MAC on the subject. DR.. Fuller
further stated that person of James
Nutts temperament mentally, brOoding
on his fathers death, would unsettle and
incapacitate him from any control over
himself. He considered him an imbeciIe.
not an idiot. The admission of this bv
the defense destroys the prosecutions at
tempt to rule out the line of defense of
emotional insanity, and gives the defense
clear field The defense put in evidence
letters read at Dukes trial not to be read
at present, but it was agreed that the
counsel should be permitted TO make re.
marks upon them previous to their being
submitted to the jury.
Mrs. Mutt, the mother of the boy on
trial, his grandmother, Mrs. Wells, Jas.
Wells, Mrs. Nuts brother, and Stephen
r. Mutt, a brother of the deceased Capt. |
Mutt, testified in corroboration of the
physician. The prisoner was in tears
during the greater part of the time his
mother, grandmother and uncle Stephen
were testifying,