The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-01-13

QlEI l11C 70 S4lDW LA1e@b a ule1l must DS
possessed OF considerable mental abil-
ity to go through the routine, especial
ly that of guard duty. A number Of
other witnesses were also placed on the
stand to prove Leach's mental condi-
ton, among them DR.. Swan. the gov
ernment physician for federal prisoners
in the Shawnee county jail, who has had
charge of the prisoners health for over
a year, and Oscar 7. Temple, hospital
steward at Fort Riley. The latter teS-
tilted that Leach was in the hospital
for three weeks at one time with a
wound in his foot, and at other times
with cramps in the stomach. When
! he had one of these attacks the priS-
oner was only partially conscious and
frothed at the mouth Witness thought
at the time he had an attack of epi-
lepsy.
The testimony was all concluded at
Sis last evening and after considerable
discussion concerning a. time limit on
the arguments to the jury, Judge Hook
announced that a night session would
be held in order to get the case to the
jury by noon today. Mr.. Hagan thought
no time limit ought to be placed in a
capital offense case.
Assistant United States District At
torney H. J. Bone opened the argument
for the prosecution, reviewing the his
tory of the case, and calling attention
/ to the fact that on the night of the
murder Leach did not attack the first
/ person he saw, as he did in the spells
which his relatives testified about, but
| laid his plans to kill Iennel and Riley
when he got out to the fort, and car
| ried out his plan so far as Fennell was
| concerned and hunted up Riley with
| lighted matches and tried to kill him.
Fred Slater, who has done most of
| the active work in hunting up the teS-
/ timony for the defense, was the first
! speaker on the side of the defense. He
/ dwelt at length on the statement of DR..
| HOgeboom that the prisoner might
| have acted automatically in going back
| after his gloves the night before the
| murder.
| Captain Waters began his speech to
| the jury. but had only made a good
| start when court adjourned for the
| day.
GOES TO THE JURY.
! At 1907 O'Clock today the Leach mur-
| der case was submitted to the jury, af-
ter listening all the morning to the ar
/ guments of Captain Waters and United
/ States District Attorney Lambert, and
/ the instructions of the court. Mr.. Hagan
! did not speak for the defense, although
he is the man who has planned it prac-
/ tically all the way through
Captain Waters spoke for over an
] hour in concluding the argument which
| he began last evening before the ad-
| journment of court. He reviewed the
! testimony from the standpoint of the
| defense, dwelling on those points which
/ tended to show that the prisoner was
/ not in his right mind at the time Of the
! crime.
1T was not Joseph Leach who killed
| FenneIl,' said Captain Waters. Go
/ back in to the dust of the past If you
! want to find who did it. Degeneracy
| and corrupted blood have eliminated in
/ this unfortunate boy. His fathers be-.
| fore him are responsible for it. The
| sins of his ancestors unto the third and
/ fourth generations back are visited up
on him"
Mr.. Lambert. in reviewing the evil
/ dence, spoke very kindly of the prison
Er,A1 1z- ,~ra1
| Leach himself unmercifully. Through
| out the arraignment the prisoner sat
! apparently unmoved, although he has
/ taken more interest in the proceedings
/ during the past day or two than he did
earlier in the trial.
| Mr.. Lambert dwelt especially on the
/ facts that Leach went back to the sa-
! loon for his gloves after having his
/ fight with Riley, asked the hack driver
to help him find his knife and after he
had pounded Fennell with the ball bat
at the fort, said to Sergeant McDer-
mott: That's what they did to me-"
/ pointing to his face. Mr.. Lambert said
that these incidents all showed that the
! prisoner remembered events which had
! gone before, while the medical experts
| testified that if he was insane he could
! have remembered nothing.
| At one point in his argument Mr..
! Lambert made an alleged quotation
from Fennen, which he claimed was
testified to by one of the witnesses.
]
| in the record of the evidence. After
some dispute Mr.. Lambert said dra-
| matically:
If that is not in the record I will
| consent to say that I ought not to have
| a verdict in the case"
| Judge Hook ruled that it was not ma
| terial, as the defense conceded that
| Leach killed Fennel, and he instructed
! the jury to disregard anything that Mr..
| Lambert had said concerning it.
/ In conclusion Mr. Lambert made a
| plea to the jury to let the death penalty
/ stand and the law take it's course with
| the prisoner. He explained that re-
| cent act of congress gave them the pow
/ er OF SuSpending the death penalty and
! inficting Imprisonment for life instead,
but he asked them to return an unQuaI-
| fled verdict of guilty as charged, In
| which event the prisoner would be
! hanged. This. he said, they owed to the
! protection Of society, for every time
| criminal escaped his due punishment
| human life was cheapened.
The last act of the court before sub
| mitting the case to the jury was to give
it's charge. In Kansas state courts the
| instructions to the jury are delivered
| by the judge before the arguments are
/ made, and the attorneys are allowed to
| argue the Instructions but in the fed
| eral courts the instructions come last.
In giving his instructions Judge Hook
first reviewed the allegations made by
/ both sides, defining murder and insan-
| ity. Insanity, he said constituted a
| complete defense. But II a person Is
! possessed of his reason at the time of
| the commission of a crime he is guilty.
The plea that he is deficient in his NOR
al sense makes no difference if he is
| sane al the time of committing the
deed. There is a difference between a
mental and moral deficiency mental
| deficiency makes a man unable to dis
| tinguish between right and wrong and
he is therefore irresponsible for his acts
but if he is morally deficient and all
! right mentally he is responsible to So
| ciety for what he does. It is claimed
. that the defendant is subject to cpl
leptic spells, but if he was not in one of
! these spells at the time of committing
! his crime he was responsible for it.
! Judge Hook stated that the defense of
/ insanity had been abused by lawyers
| as a last resort in difficult cases, and
| that eminent medical men who believed
! tlaat c..i.n,a sir,,rlzz q disease assistaa