The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-12-20
oRANKs.
Insanity and Responsibility,
To the Editor of the Press:

To the Editor of the Press:
Tenderness and sympathy for the
degraded, the criminal and the insane
are noble and commendable qualities.
They should be protected, defended.
elevated and restored to virtue, sanity
and usefulness if possible. But the
4 honest, the virtuous, the intelligent and
and protection. These last are useful
and necessary factors in society, while
the former are useless and injurious ele-
, ments. The question of the legal re-
sponsibility of the criminally insane is
becoming one of intense and pressing
Importance. The constantly increasing
frequency of the plea of insanity as a
defense for outrageous, unprovoked and
brutal crimes is fast breaking down
every barrier erected by society to pro-
tect the lives of its members. In most
cases judges, jurors and lawyers know
the plea is a fiction. The accused was
sane enough before the crime, but fire.
quentiy by a verdict of acquittal by
jury is pronounced to have been insane
just at the moment of the act We all
know this is farce. We all know it
is an evasion of solemnlY enacted
statutes intended to protect human life
The verdict should be in these cases
4justifiable homicide" or it should be
guilty" If we propose to allow private
sion OF marital or other rights let us SO
enact in our laws Let us be straight-for-
ward and honest. A
But there is another class Of criminals,
likesP endergast, and hundreds of others,
who are called cranks." who are ever
ready to shoot down men in prominent
positions. This class are angularly or
ganized, badly balanced and usually ex-
ceedingly egotisticaI creatures. who gen
orally claim to have some great mission
to perform for the sake of religion, their
country or their God. They seem to
be sane on all other topics. They reason
from cause to effect. They deliberately
plan for their safety after the execution
of their criminal mission has been per-
formed. They show by these plans that
they are conscious of breaking the law
They show great fear of consequences,
and shrink from personal danger to
themselves. Right theresit seems to us
the line can be drawn between response
BILE and irresponsible insanity. The real
~ insane is not conscious of any breach
of moral or legal obligation, no matter
INV SIuCl VI dtIOCiOuS Uu6 CFlIQ6. he
has no thought of personal safety, no
fear of personal consequences. He is
simply machine executing the behests
OF diseased brain. He cares nothing
foi the opinions or good will of the COM
muntty. Not being conscious of any
breach of moral precept or legal enact
ment. he makes no provision for personal
safety. He is not morally, and therefore
should not be made legally, responsible
for his acts But the class who do fear
personal injury and legal punishment;
who do plan for personal safety from the
consequences of their violence and
crime; who do know and realize that
they are breaking public law and out
raging priavte rights by their violence,
and shrink from the consequences of their
acts, are the very ones above all others
who ought to be visited by the full pen
atty of the law, if it is ever visited on
any one. Other "cranks" might, and
undoub tedly would, be deferred from
making themselves knight-errants to
right their fancied wrongs, or the fancled
wrongs of society, if there were a little
of this species of insane. Take the case
of Prendergast, for example He is I'M
doubtedly an egotistical, fanatlcal and
political bigot. So far in life he has
been of little use to his friends or soci-
ETY.. There is no use to which he could
DC Pub WHICH WOulQ DeneuG the world II
his life were preserved. His very 9ex-
istence is a menace to good order He
is undoubtedly very badly balanced in
dividual, filled with overweening self
conceit, and to certain extent undoubt-
edly insane. Yet he deliberately planned
and deliberately executed most afro
cious, brutal and cowardly murder; a
murder which struck .at the heart of
civil government and shocked the whole
country. He has deliberately planned
fog his defense.
Even admitting his partial insanity,
would not the example of his execution
do great good in lettering other semi
idiots who prize their own worth
less lives, from committing similar
crimes? We are not sure that the execu-
ton Of every murderous criminal is not
the best disposition which could be
made of him. Society then would GER
tainly be effectually protected from fur
ther depredations from them, while if
they are allowed to live they might es-
cape and commit further outrages. The
peaceable, the orderly, the industrious
and the sane must be protected, or our
society, government and human institu-
tions are failures.
C.H.WIswELL,
Fryeburg Ce ntre.