St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-04-29
THE MEDICAL EXPERT WIT
NESS.


York city for the murder with poison OF
his wife has ended in verdict of guilty.
He is a degraded brute; she was an
abandoned woman. There is nothing
in the case. so far as the principal or
his victim is concerned, to attract COM
ment. There were some features of the
trial that do warrant it.
The case turned almost entirely on
the testimony given by medical experts.
Analysts, expert PSYCHOLOGISTS, exam
ined the remains of the dead woman
and testified that they found evidences
of morphine poisoning. a young at
torney for the defense gained national
reputation by his Skillfui crosS-eXamlna-
ton of these witnesses. lie drove them
into corners with the art of trained
lawyer backed by the knowledge of
specialist IN poisOns. The defense put
upon the stand PSYCHOLOGISTS as eminent,
who testified that the natural decom-
position of bodies produces, in the
breaking down of the cells and tissues,
precisely the same effects that morphine
does, and that, therefore, the testimony
of the experts of the state proved moth
ing except that decay mad set in.
1t is clear that if the Jury was guided
by this testimony it should have ac-
Quilted the accused. Both sets of wit
nesses testified to facts and conclusions
which were so beyond the cOmprehen-
sion of the Jury that it was as bound to
accept their statements as facts as 1t
was bound to accept the courts state
mentS of the law. If certain conditions
may be produced by either decompOSi-
ton or by morphine, then, not to men
ton the reasonable doubt TO which the
defendant was entitled, the jury was
bound to find the charge not proven.
The corpus deficit was not established.
Another feature of this case, one
common to all where such Testimony is
offered. is what may be termed the
retainer of medical experts to act as
witnesses for either the prosecution or
the defense. Doctors seem to regard
their profession in such cases in much
the same light that the lawyers look on
theirs. A lawyer cares nothing for the
guilt or innocence of the defendant;
that Is for the jury to settle, and he need
not burden his conscience with it. 1t is
his business to secure az acQuittal. If
he can find out the line of tne prOsecu-
ton he sets his wits at work to devise
some means to circumvent it. 1t is a
game of skill in which the supposed
purpose of the trial, the ascertainment
OF the truth, has no place whatever.
There is apparent, i'll the conduct or
the men of medicine called to the one or
the other side of these cases, similar
view OF their relations to the case. They
are expected to use their knowledge and
their skill as the lawyer who calls them
uses his, to aid in the conviction or the
acquittal of the accused. Professional
pride and jealousy operate on the doctor
and the lawyer alike. Each takes TO
himself the credit OF the victory; each
receives the congratulations of friends
on having won. The result is the dis
credit of expert testimony. 1t is hardly
more valuable than are the aSSevera-
lions of the attorneys OF their implicit
belief in either the guilt or the inno-
cence of the defendant. Both doctor
and lawyer are expected to do just what
they do; they are both retained for and
paid for this kind of service.