The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1888-05-19
IMMUNITY FOR INSANE MURDERERS
[From Tie Dallas, Texas, News,


Among the valuable papers read be
fore the Texas Medical Association at
its recent session in Galveston, that Of
DR.. II. A. West, chairman of the sec
tion on medical Jurisprudence, perhaps
above all possessed the greatest inter.
est for the general public. The qHes-
ton of how great or how little respOn
sibility should be attached 10 The acts
of the insane criminal is Of secondary
importance in an intelligent considera-
ton of the matter. The public Is not
interested in legal punishment save a.
means of suppressing crime and pro
noting safety of life and property and
personal liberty. Only the 0mnipO-
temce of God and nature eau apportiDn
exactly and exhanstively the penalties
of retribulive Justice. la some way
every individual or collective offensc
is awarded soon or late its full and
precise measure of puni-hmGnt. There
is absolutely no escape by amy trick or
subtertuge for hiding guilt and cheat .
ing Justice. But society. ciyiIly Orgau-
lied, must have lis prual law. The
supreme purpose OF this lazy is to elm
mate the criminal, to disable the Grim
4
dangerous TO harmless IL character. H.
provisions respecting the criminal are
not for revenge in the human sense or
the divine sense, but for the protection
of the community in which he lives
In short, they contemplate punishment
as protective eXpedient. What &
glaring anomaly is presented then in Il
criminal jurisprudence which acquitE n
murderer of legal responsibility on tn"
plea OF homicidaI insanity and then let
| him 90 free to indulge that insanity,
| If the discouraged culprit is really in
sane he is far more dangerous than g
| sane man who commits u murder, iol
the former neither appreciates the de
pravity of his iAclinatioms nor fears the
consequences of giving free play tc
them. For him the gallows or peniten
tiary has no terrors that can deter hin
| from the commission of crime. The
sane man counts the cost before he acts
unless carried away by passion; not 8.
for the insane man, who thinks only o
the present, and fears neither God nOl
man. These facts are too well kuOwi
to require reiteration, and yet th'
statutory law makes no prOvisiO,
for the special restraint of the insane
criminal, but, on the contrary. allow,
the fact or the plea of insanity to b.
used in a way 10 exempt him ahkt
from physical restraint and legal re
sponsibility. A premium is thu
placed on insanity, and il is an cas-,
thing for man to 60 crazy with ih
gallows staring him in the face, as on
of the physicians expressed il, tn
number of insane criminals is increase,
out of all proportion by the cnnnin.
lawyers handling the cases. If an,
good could come from such immunit,
for the really or technically imsam
there might he some excuse tor its con
tinuance. But there is absolutrl
nothing that can be said in its favor
On the contrary, every instinct OF self
preservation and self interests con
demns it, The mad dog is killed o
locked up, not because it has don
harm, but in order that it shall not d
harm. Why not apply the same con
mon sense rule to the insane man wit
homicidal tendencies? There is it'll
choice between being killed by-a ma
dog or madman aside from the tortuI c
of hydrophobia. The question of Ill
l and death is the same in both cases IAN
: yet intelligent men kill the dog at ono
} without trial, and an intelligent iur
allows the insane man TO go scot frc
2 The statutes are radically defective i
this respect, and 1t is to be hoped thu
! the next legislature will amend ther
1 in the line laid down by DR.. West
, his able and scientific report. III
} physicians, above al! others, are quail
. fed to form and express intelligei
opinions on such subjects, and the Law
> makers should be largely guided b
l them in acting upon this importal
[ feature of our criminal laws.