The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-02-01

men, no insane map has ever yet been held
guilty of any crimS
THE old law which says that blood must
be wiped out in blood is an old.
abhorrent cry out of a black and bit
ter past. 1t is the plain duty and re-
sponsibility of jurors that there shall
be no reasonable doubt before you make Cp
yr'ir final verdict and convict this defend
art OF crime for which he may be irre-
spOnsible. All the innocent blood that was
| shed on the horrid morning in August can
not tinge this mans hands and soul so deep
crimson that he shall be deprived of thar
| solemn doctrine of reasonable doubt
4 Plea for Justice.
He closed with plea for justice and
mercy at the hands of the jury, saying:
Take the case, gentlemen, and in fair
ness and in mercy deal with the case OF
Benjamin Hill Smell as you would at the
| final day your God should deal with you.
Mr.. Anderson began his argument with
an appeal to the common sense of the
jury, relating TO them the plain circum-
stances Of the case and asking them il
they could conceive OF an innocent man
COMFORTING himself as Smell had when he
had killed that girl. He related the de-
tails OF SHELLS life at his work and away
from it.
Mr.. anderson declared that no man who
had himself conceived his own plan OF de-
fence could be an epileptic or an innocent
| man by virtue of insanity. after the
| eloquent and convincing argument OF my
colleague l am aware that there is little
for me to say. | confess that | have lis
tened with great interest to the eloquent
appeal of the gentleman who has Just adj
dressed you. an elequence worthy of a
better cause, and | nave thought of it as
remote from the issue. The most re-
markablo thing about the argument OF
my distinguished friend was the absence
of facts to sustain the appeal. 1t was a
forensic appeal TO your mercy for a man
whom he does not even declare innocent
on the ground of continued insanity, but
he asks you to deduce from the testimony
the possible fact of his insanity.
He claims the insanity not of day, or
Of an hour, but of a moment when he
killed this child. He does not ask you TO
believe that this man as he now sits be-
fore YOU is insane. No, he merely asks
you to believe that he was an insane man
at the moment when he did the deed.
want 10 say 30 you now gentlemen. that
this man is either an innocent man or lie
is guilty OF murder in the first degree.
There is no middle ground to follow We
must 'hew to the line, let the chips fall
where they may.
4 Highway of Escape
we have come TO point where this
highway of escape from the penalty of
crime must no longer be open to the
criminal. 1t has come to q pass when the
holder and bloodier the crime the simpler
seems the open way of escape. This man
who has been living a double life all these
years; a man who is n typical DR.. Jekyll
and MIR. Hyde, is attempting to palm off
on you here a plea of insanity" The
speaker turned and faced the defendant as
he said this and Smell looked worried. The
father sat with bowed head and watched
the attorney from behind his hand. He
looked far more troubled than did the de-
PENDANT.
Society" said the District Attorney
'is without protection II juries fail to do
their duty. Allow it to become the recog-
nized principle that a man may be sane
one moment, insane the next, and sane
the next. and We are rudderless upon the
sea Of criminality. This talk about epilep-
tic seizures is the work of vivid imagi-
nation. Where is the man whom Smell
ever told OF an epileptic seizure? He does
not exist. He may have had spasms when
child. but be that as it may. we are only
interested in that mans mind at the mo
meat when he killed that girl. He had
threatened 10 bring her back to him dead
or alive He followed out that threat and
he killed her. Was that threat an indi-
cation of the love he is said to have had
for her, even as he loved his own chill
dren?"
Mr.. Anderson went into a review of the
case from the deductions of the witnesses
from the Pension Office. denying, in every
particular. the insanity of the man at any
moment during his life within this city
III he was insane when he killed the
girl why did he not return to the other
room ana continue his tall. with the mother