New-York tribune., 1885-07-12
THE INSANITY PLEA BEFORE JURIES.

age American Jury is working out a settlement
of the perpexities introduced to the admins
tration of criminal law by the plea OF emotionai
INSANITY Three remarkable cases have Wlthih
few days been decided, in ways which nave
doubtless astonished the public, but which
when carefully examined reveal hopeful
degree of method. We refer to the Dudley
case. the CARPENTER case and the Spreckles
case the first two having been tried here and
the last in San Francisco In the Dudley case
medical dispositions to the defendants saniy
were introduced on the other hand, NUMBER
of so-caled experts declared their DcllcI tha'
she was insane and the jury acquitted hcr OH
the ground of insanity. In the Carpenter case
the defendant having mur dcrcd his wife most
brutally after threatening her life for years
and after serving out term OF imprisonment
for n murderous assault on woman whom he
mistook for his wife. most of the expert testl-
mony favored the mans insanity and the jury
found him guilty of murder IN the first degree
In the Spreckles case, the defendant, son Oh
Claus Spreckles, the millionaire sugar manu-
facturer and planter, shot and wounded M' IL.
De Young, proprietor Of Inc San frdn-
cisco Chronicle, as alleged IN revenge ier
attacks upon his father in that journal In TINS
case the defence was insanity, and also SELF
defence. Here the jury, after long trial, has
acquitted the defendant.
Now in all these cases the alienst experts
figured largely. Each side produced them
freely. and their evidence was as contradictory
and irreconcilable rs possible. And what Is
the inference as to this class of testimony to be
derived from the three verdictsi Plainly that
n,,I uf Ouf q
their minds. In the first case they acquitted
Mrs. Dudley clearly not because they really be-
lieved her to be insane. but because that way
of escape was presented TO them, and because
they did not think O'Donovan Rosa possessed
the ordinary claims to protection by society.
In the case of Carpenter, though there was
much stronger basis for the plca OF insanity,
they saw in the defendant cruel and mallg-
nant ruilian who if he was mad had made
himself so by fostering his horrible purpose of
assassination, and holding him TO be Thoroughly
accountable, they found him guilty as charged.
The Spreckles case Is not so easy TO anaiyzc
But it must be perceived that the verdict GER
talnly does not rest upon the expert testimony
ut all, and that that testimony was
in effect set aside as possessing no sig
Hificance. The counsel for the defence in
fact sought to create the impression
that Adolph Sprcckes was justified in trying
to kill De Young because the latter through
his paper had attacked the character and stand
ing of the young mans father. At the same
time, it was argued that young Spreckles acted
entirely without premeGtaiion that he thought
De Young was about TO draw pistol on him,
and that he fred the impulse of the
a, hi md a lsf
of acquittal
These cases appear to show that the average
jury is solving the vexatlous problem of expert
evidence by putting it out of court altogether (;
and this is possibly the only way in which it
can be prevented from making every criminal
case where insanity is pleaded mass Of hope
les, confusion. Jurics are practically returning
to the Old status that which altedated the era
of emotional insanity and there is no method
better calculated to eliminate a plea which has
done enormous mischief, in causing fiagrant
failures of justice and in cultivating popular
contempt for the whole criminal administrati We
system. In the cases cited it is obvious that
the jures refused to entertain the expert
theories, but guided themselves by what they
believed TO be the plain facts Of the case, seek
ing to trace the motives Oft the defendants with
out reference to their supposed or alleged in
sanity. Naturally tho tacit exclusion of cx-
pert testimony is liable to cause some blundcrs
at first because as yet he substitute for it has
been offered and iurics must grOpe somewhat.
But this is by no means u surprising outcome
of the fog in which the criminal practice has
lately been involved. The plea of insanity has
been abused until it has become intolcrable,
and nature, through the average juryman, is
apparently trying her bost to redress the bal
ance By the simplest and most effective methods
available.
CHEATING THE CUSTOMS