The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-17
TRYING AssASsINs.


The death of President Mckinley fixes the
grade Of the crime committed by his assail-
ant and removes all doubt as to the pen
atty. He will be tried and convicted of
murder. and. under the New York law. will
be electTocUted. 1t is an easy and painless
death. but the law of the State where the
crime was committed admits of other
mode. In the case of President Garfield a
question of jurisdiction was raised as to
whether his assailant should be tried in
Washington. where the attack was made.
or in New Jersey, where Mr.. Garfield died.
Under the laws of New Jersey the courts of
that State have jurisdiction in the case of
death within its limits from criminal in
jury caused elsewhere, but in that case
they waived it in favor of the District of
Columbia court. In the present case no
preliminary question can be raised, and the
assassin should be tried. convicted and ex-
ecuted as soon as possible. No such delay
or trifiing with justice should be allowed as
was in the Guiteau trial, which lasted more
than two months. Guiteau was defended
by his brother-in-law, lawyer named SEQ
vile, from Chicago, and also assisted in
his own defense by objections, protests and
statements that greatly retarded the trial.
He was placed on the witness stand TO
testify in his own behalf and was under
examination four days This was a need
less waste Of time. 1t was not until the
fourth week of the Guiteau trial that the
defense began to introduce expert testi-
mony to prove insanity. A hypothetical
question was put of great length and very
adroitly framed, closing with the words,
assuming all of these propositions to be
true, state whether, in your opinion, the
prisoner was sane or insane at the time of
shooting President Garfield" Many promi-
nent insanity experts from different parts
of the country testified that under the
propositions as stated they should regard
the prisoner as insane, though some of
them objected to the form of the question.
In reply to another hypothetical question
of much greater length-long enough to FIJI
still larger number of experts testified their
belief that the prisoner was sane. The con-
test over this question, which probably
British court would either not have allowed
to be raised at all or would have disposed
of in a few hours, lasted several weeks.
The speeches and other features of the trial
were equally prOlix, to the disgust of the
public and the scandal of justice. Finally,
Guiteau was convicted Jan. %. 1882, and
was sentenced to be hanged on the 3Oth of
June following. He spent FIVE months in
Jail, a convicted assassin, during which
he received the sympathy of cranks of both
sexes. 1t is to be hoped nothing of all this
may occur in the trial of Czolgocz. Under
the laws OF New York, if the prisoner
should inform the court that he has no
counsel and TO means with which to en-
ploy one. the court will be obliged to as
sign counsel to defend him, but it should
be with instructions that no trifing with
law attempts to defeat justice will be
allowed. The court should set memorable
precedent for the speedy trial. conviction
and punishment of Anarchists. 1t is a good
time and a good case for the court to make
a new record.