St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-06-19


this defendant, at this county, and
about the time named, did shoot and
kill the John W. DOherty named in the
indictment without excuse or justifica-
ton, yet, if by a fair preponderance of
the evidence you are satisfied
that at the time she fired the
fatal shot she was insane
that is that she was then labOring under
such defect of reason as either not to
know the nature and quality of the act
she was doing, viz, either that she did
not know that she fired the shot at
all or by so doing did not know that
the natural and ordinary consequences
of such shooting would be to either
kill or wound the manor even If
she knew that she had, in fact, shot
Doherty, uyet by loss Of reason she
did not know the act was wrong-ln
such case you must find the defendant
not guilty.
INSANITY, WHEN PROVEN,
is complete defense to crime. If this
defendant was. at the time the alleged
homicide was committed, an insane
person, that is to say, if she was labor
ing under such defect Of reason as
either not to know the nature and
quality of the act she was doing, or not
to know that the act itself was wrong,
she is not amenable to the law. This
does not mean, however, that wounded
pride or disappointed affection, or in
tense anger or hatred or grief, although
any of these passions may obscure and
even obstruct partially the operation OF
reason, will excuse for the taking of
human life.
There is another feature of this case.
gentlemen of the jury, to which desire
to call your attention. 1t is this: Your
selves and the court, by reason of our
position, have been compelled to listen
at this trial to recital said to cover the
daily life of this defendant and the de-
ceased for several years prior to the
homicide, so revolving in its beStlality
as to rival the annals of SOdOm. With
out characteriZing the effect of this sort
of testimony, wish to caution you notto
permit it to prejudice your minds in any
way towards this defendant. However
grievOuS her sins have been otherwise,
as she has admitted them upon this
stand, she has probably paid the PEN
atty, so far as this world goes, in other
ways, and is not on trial here for those.
On the other hand, caution you not to
permit your sympathies, natural and
honorable in all right-minded men, for
her because she is a woman, and per-
haps woman who has been abused by
the man that is dead, to run
away with your right reason and to
seek an excuse for her if she has
been proven guilty of this crime,
and acquit her for those reasons. out
side the case. A woman who violates
the law is as amenable to it, and should
answer to justice just as man. Nor
should you permit that other feeling to
influence your verdict, which possibly
may have arisen in your minds, that,
assuming the testimony of this de-
fendant as to her life in connection
with the deceased and as to his treat
ment of her to be all true, that perhaps
the deceased
DESERVED ALL HE GOT.
This defendant, however grievOus
her wrongs may have been at the hands
of Doherty, was not his executioner,
and the law cannot permit, nor can the
peace and good order of the community
be preserved by permitting any one,
however grievouS the wrongs may be,
to take the law in his or her own hands
and ayenge that wrong. Forget that
this defendant, is a woman, and a
woman of degraded life, so far as
color your verdict in the case. For
get the claim that is made here
that the dead man was vile in his
thoughts and actions, and therefore to
be abhorred by all honorable men. Re-
member only your Oaths to ''well and
truly try and true deliverance make be-
tween this defendant and the state of
Minnesota" upon the evidence given
you in court and upon the law. Hold
ing the testimony that has been given
YOU up to the clear. cold light of reason,
consider it, sift it, analyze it--deter-
mine what the facts are; and, having so
determined, apply the law as have in
structed you, to those facts, and form
your verdict thereon. Such verdict,
and such verdict alone, will be true
deliverance between the state and the
defendant.