The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-10


The fact that hypnotism is as clearly
recognized as insanity as a defense in
criminal cases will be new 10 most people
In fact. the proportion Of the people Of
this or any other country. who have any
knowledge OF hypnotism. except the very
vaguest. is small. The decision Of the SUI
preme court Of Kansas. therefore, recOg-
nizing hypnotism as defense in a murder
case naturally creates surprise. The de-
cision was rendered last Saturday. There
is no similar case in the legal history Of
this country. and it is doubtful If there Is
in that Of any other.
The facts. briefly. are these: A farmer
named Gray became the trustee Of prop
erty for limited time. and for a specified
purpose. There was only one witness TO
the agreement by which he became a
trustee. a man named Patton. At the end
Of his trusteeship he desired to retain pos
session Of the property. This he could
safely do, provided the witness, Patton,
was out Of the way. This witness was
killed by a weak minded man named Nc
Donald. who was arrested for the crime.
On his trial he declared he had been hyp-
Noticed by Gray and directed to shoot
Patton. II appeared that he had been
taught the use OF the rife by Gray. and
that he had no motive for killing Patton.
It appeared, also. that Gray had a motive
for wishing Patton's death.
On this statement Of facts Mcdonald
was given a verdict of mot guilty" al
though he freely admitted that he had
fired the fatal shot Gray was arrested
and convicted. although it was shown that
he was not at the place where the murder
was committed. The supreme court sus-
tanned the verdict, declaring him guilty
of the murder of Patton.
A New York judge. who makes a special
study Of remarkable cases. in comment
ing on this decision Of the Kansas SUI
preme court. said there was not. in his
opinion. another case like it in the world.
Still, he thinks the decision a correct one.
and declared that under the laws of New
York man who had hypnotized another
and induced him to commit a
crime could be convicted Of
that crime. Hypnotism. he said.
is now one of the recognized forces
of nature, and can be properly pleaded
as a defense to charge OF crime.
This Kansas case opens a. wide field for
speculation. Hypnotism Is a defense
readily set up and it is q defense that is
hhciS " NC lNaNA ANh " AtNiNt OAANi III AAAt
courts in future. 1t may be difficult to
prove it; still, who can tell what an aver
age jury would do when required to pass
upon a force so remarkable as that of hyp-
notism-a force which. from accounts.
may be made to manifest itself in so many
ways? If a man can be hypnotized and
compelled to commit crime, why cannot
a strong-willed lawyer hypnotic judge and
jury and get such a verdict as he desires.
If this force exists now. has it not always
existed, and If 1t has always existed, have
not many crimes, for which innocent per-
sons have been convicted, been committed
under its shield?
But the fact must not be overlooked that
1t is not accepted by all that there is such
q force. Only recently a series of articles
appeared in the Century Magazine, in
which the position was taken that there
is no such force-that the remarkable
things apparently done in its name are
fakes" pure and simple.
1t is known that hypnotic doctors are
practicing in some Of our cities, and in
some recent publications the assertion is
made that some physicians of
high standing hypnotic their pa
TENTS in certain cases. The
Kansas case is likely to give great i'm
petus to investigation in the domain of
hypnotism