Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1914-06-17
TEXAS WOULD CHECK
PLEAS OF INSANITY
Proposed Law Would Send to
Asylum Man Not Guilty
I on That Ground.

on That Ground.
Fort Worth. Tex. Special: With the
hind the movement, an organized effort
Will be made at the next session OF the
Texas legislature to enact q law to
change the methods of handling insan-
lty pleas in criminal cases and to
provide a separte asylum for the GRIM
It Is aimed to put a check on the use
OF the insanity plea as a means of es-
Gaping punishment for crime. AS the
law now stands a man may be sent to
an insane asylum in Texas only after
he has been adudged insane by a jury
jury In the trial of a criminal case may
have found him insane. an additional
insanity proceeding Is necessary to
commit to an asylum.
The for a change In the e
law really started in Fort Worth when
Claude McCaleb and j. j. Hurley, two
young attorneys here, were appointed
by District Judge Marvin Brown to de.
fend Rufus Hales. charged with the
murder of his wife. He pleaded mot
guilty" for their client and assured the
col that they had been unable to get
anything out of him to indicate their
guilt or innocence. They declared that
he was insane.
The Jury disagreed and Hurley ana
McCaleb Immediately filed a lunacy
complaint against their client in tho
county court, and he was adjudged in
still in the county Jail here, there be-
ing no room for him in The state Insane
asylum.
Proposed Now Laws.
These TWO attorneys went to work to
secure reforms In the laws applying to
lunatic and drug fiends. They pro-
posed three new laws-one making the
and other such drugs a felony instead
OF q misdemeanor; one to provide a
state asylum for criminal insane; a
third to automatically send a man to
this asylum after acquital Of a felony
charge on the ground Of insanity.
They presented the matter to the
State Medical association at Houston
and the association unanimously in
dorsed 1t. 1t will be presented to the
Star Bar association at it's next meet
ing. The three district judges and the
prosecuting attorney here have already
Endorsed 1T, as have many of the prom
1nent members of the local bar.
Judges Approve.
District Judge~W. Il. Simmons said:
"A judge should have authority to
send a man to an asylum whenever he
10 held insane by a jury, with a pro-
vision h a previous jeopardy shall not
attach In such a case. If a man is
1ound to be insane at the time Of his
trial he should be sent to the ASYLUM
%instanter, but under such conditions
that whenever he RECEIVERS his reason
he could be brought back and tried
again.
III 1t is shown that a man is insane
at the time of the commission of a
crime, he necessarily must be found
NOT guilty nVon fhn,rrh hA cn~,,1I ~
come sane later. But there are many
cases where a man becomes insane
AFTER the commission of q crime. and
still more where they feign insanity to
avoid punishment. In the latter cases
tnere should be provision for a trial
Whenever the patient recovers OF the
fraud Is discovered"
No Guilty But insane"
District Judge Marvin H. Brown
said:
"Our criminal statutes are 100 years
D0ntnd the times on some subjects, and
this IL n of them. There ought to
20 2 provision for a plea Of insanity.
II the jury finds a man not guilty on
tho ground that he Is insane, it should
say SO; and In such a case the judge
should have authority to send the
prisoner at once to any asylum avail
able. l believe that such q procedure
would stop a whole lot Of these insanity
fSCoSs - WOulu n WNOl0 lot rather be
In the penttentiary than an insane
asylum. and you would. too.
Il would not favor anything like the
Dill providing for a plea OF guilty but
insane such as was passed recently |
by the New York legislature, and 1
think that Governor Glynn did right in |
vetoing that bill. would want the
Jury to pass on the question and then
give the court authority to act without |
further delay"
District Judge James w. swayne
said:
1T is the law in many other states
n ought to be here. The procedure |
under which q nan must be adiudged +
san in a separate proceeding. after
jury has already held him insane. /
makes 1t possible for some criminals I
TO escape punishment altogether"
John w. Baskin. county attorney of
Tarrant county. also favors the pro.
posed laws.
/; Quite Easily Pleased.
From the Christian Herald.
The Navajos are the least gregarious
Of native American tribes. never con. +