Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1912-05-20
THE INSANITY PLEA.

Insanity as a defense in murder and other
serious felony eases has been worked to death
in this country. When a prominent foreign
crimnologist comes forward and says that most
OF the people in the United States are insane,
the public can see how far scientists will go in
pursuit of their fads The eminent authority
could not doubt be got to swear in the witness
box that any murderer was insane because the
doing OF an act so out of the ordinary proves
it according to his theory No prisoner with
money has yet failed to find doctors willing to
testify to his lack of self-control amounting to
insanity in their opinion.
Starting with the proposition that all crime
is abnormal and that well balanced man will
not wrong another, every criminal must
be insane. From this proposition, its advocates
except crimes induced by hunger or the sight
OF those dependent a man suffering from
actual want. But the strictest theoogians
hold that technical theft which is the outcome
OF actual starvation and which therefore springs
from the instinct of self-preservation is not a
sin. and therefore not crime and this is the
view the average jurors always take if such
cases reach them Apart from such instances.
it is claimed by some that all criminals are in
sane because life of crime is the height of
folly.
1t is true that nearly all criminals can be
included in some class of perverts Officials and
attendants in state prisons have testified time
and again indulgence in abnormal vices by most
are throuhg their own depravity induced chiefly
by evil associations. They take the downward
path because they are lazy, and having lost
the sense of responsibility to society everything
else goes with that in the end.
Certain classes of youthful offenders never
reform. When they fall into the hands of the
law, their minds have become so warped that
they look on society their enemy. This is
true of both sexes The mother superior of a
reform institution for women in the neighbor-
hood of New York, through whose hands thou
sands of them have passed. when asked if those
who had fallen into evil ways when of tender
years ever reformed replied II think | know
of one who did" Only one out of thousands
Take the case of Decker, high class Grim
mai and one OF the most dangerous forgers and
counterfeiters ever known to the police of this
continent He sentenced to a long term of
Imprisonment for engraving photographic stone
to be used in printing counterfeit banknotes
He had lived in poverty all his life while ont of
prison because he kept trying to make a for
tune by counterfeiting. He was one of the many
engravers in this country and could earn from
sixty to eighty dollars week at his trade This
was proved by men who had employed him
when he was starved into doing honest work
When working for them he would save money
enough to keep him while he worked ON a count
terfet plate and then he would quit honest work
and go back to life Of crime This man was
not only was a skilled workman, but an artist OF
no sdean ability. In sense, he must have been
crAzy to waste his life as he did
Society must protest itself and the law says
sat man who knows the nature Of the act he
commits and that is contrary TO law is guilty
when he commits overt act no matter
whether he thinks il is right wrong The
fanatic who believes in offering a human sac.
rifce on the altar is guilty Of murder IL he puts
his belief in practice because he knows the
nature of death and that the law forbids killing
Richeson. the Boston murderer is probably
q pervert bat he knew that death would follow
The swallowing % the poison he gave his victim
md he knew Sneh murder was unlawful and
attempts 10 commit suicide Ia not establish ths
absence ~ guilty knowledge
As long as trial by jury and a free press
.xists there i no fear that the quality ~ mercy
ill ar.inr inlo A.. ....,r.lnr