Bisbee daily review., 1911-06-10
Expert Declares No Such Thing as "InSanity
 Dodue"
New York StarJ

Doctor Carlos F. Macdonald, e~- pert in criminal pathology, has up- set some popular beliefs in a paper which he read at the recent confer euce on Reform of Criminal Law and Procedure at Earl Hall, Columbia University.
 He declared that the percentage CT criminals who escaped the'" 5ust deserts by pleading insanity Was ex- tremely small: that many peosIe were iDcarerated in prison who ought actually to be in a lunat'c asylum. and that the law in regard 10 criminal insanity was woetuily autiuuated and inadequate. Doctor NaslDonad said. in part;
 "One of the popular delusions Of the dav. if I may SO term 1t, is mat the plea of insanity-tbe sO-called insanity dcdua'-ts f-eCUently sue crgsfullv used in the defense of sane criminals. While it is true that a trnmped up defense of insanity is freouently offered in criminal cases in which there appears to be no o h. CT avenue of escape. the fact is that a dishonest plea of insanity very ! rarely succeeds. During an eXDeri- ! ence of nearly forty years in the ob- | servation of such cases ! have per s5nally known but two instances in ! which a sane criminal escaped cOnvic | ton on the plea of insanity.
 The injustice
 ''The real injustice in this matter is that the insanity defense IS moi by any means employed as often al it should be. In other words, m"ct more harm results from. lack of ex nert testimony than from it's defects There are far more instances Of th' commitment of insane persons tS Il prison for want Of preliminary eN animation and recognition Of thel mental condition than there are O the commitment Of sane criminah to hospitals for insane. Many so-calI ed criminals are convicted and sen fl, Drisor only to be found insan' ii and transferred to the asylum to criminal insane. Such patients ar wholly out Of place in prisons, when they are not stigmatized as felon and deDTived of the proper and hu mane care that is due, but are mad worse by prison discipline, while th difficulty of enforcing prison rule ] in their cases greatly interferes wit rroner administration.
 Doctor Allison has reported tha F2 per cent of 179 insane persons UT der his charge at the asylum for tn criminal insane at Matteawan, wh had committed murder. were recei' ed from prison to which they ha Ibeen sentenced for life. Their histoi ies and the character of the diseas showed that at least 70 per cent such convicted cases were insane the time the crime was committed r, many instances the fact of thei insanity was not recognized at tn fine of their trial but in others th plea was set up and failed
 Insane Convicted.
 Whenever this matter has been made the subject of inquiry. tnl has been the story in all large pri ons and institutions in which tn criminal insane are received both sbis and in foreign countries. Tn lowest estimate from authoritativ sources. and a most conservative on ia that ten insane persons gre mad convicts to one malefactor who C canes punishment on the plea of Il sanity.
 Tt is also a prevalent notion thf | it is an easy matter to simulate feign insanity successfully, The fa' is that one could scarcely uHaertak a more difficult role. To succeed shamning insanity so as to deceiv skilled observer one would n quire not only to be consummat actor, but to be well versed In tn