The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1914-03-28
UNIQUE DEFENSE
IS OFFERED FOR
YOUNG CHARLTON
Lawyers Contend He Was in State
of Moral Infancy" When He
Killed Wife
MUCH SYMPATHY WORKED Up
American Defendant viii Be First
and Last to Address Ital.
ian Jury
MUCH SYMPATHY WORKED Up

Como Italy March 2S.-Porter
Charlton, Tie young American, who
killed his wife, Mary Scott Charlton,
when they were spending their honey
moon here in June, 1910, has acquired
a sufficient :nowledoe of Italian to
avail himself Of the privilege under
the Italian law To he the first and the
last To address the jurors before whom
he is to be tried on the charge of mur-
der
sympathy for the accused youth has
been demonstrated frequently durilg
his detention in the san Donneno jail.
! since eXtradition from the United
States last August. While Charlton
has been studying the language of the
country his lawyers have been work.
ing up public opinion i'm his favor. The
effect is apparent. Visitors to the Jail
are many and privileges have been
| granted To the prisoner by the direc-
tor and Keepers of the Jail. His meals
are served from the outside. Good ODD
and daily exercise in the court yard of
the Palace of Justice have kept him
| in fine health.
1t may he midsummer before the
case is tried delays being due to cx-
tended Investigations undertaken by
! both sides
Witnesses From America.
Charlton's lawyers have been get
ting i'm touch with numerous witne.
i'm America. Twenty Of them have
been subpoenaed, and it is expected
| that several may appear personally
! before the court of Assizes at Como
! To contribute their testimony as To the
psychological condition of the accus-
ed.
While the case is new in the sense
that it is the first time an American
citizen has been eXtradited and tried
in Italy, it does not differ greatly from
the so-called crimes of passion so fire.
quent here.
studying the terrible drama, we
have become convinced and will dem
onstrate' say Charlton's lawyers in
/ sketch Of the theories they will pur-
| sue, llldl All bllSNult anu illtN lldblf
! fatality presides over these awful
crimes, which go from love to death.
from the idyll To tragedy, 10y which a
! human life is suddenly cut short bv
the hand of a creature who loved, and
who still passonately loves, and who
after the crime remains terrified,
weakened, and stunned by what he has
done, incapable of believing that the
| blood was shed by him.
Charlton of weak character, mex
! pcricnccd, overwhelmed by the artful
attractions of Mary Scott was cap
tured by an almost pathological fasci-
nation, had his conscience weakened
and enslaved and became the easy tool
of incoherent and illogical exccsscs.
In State of Moral Infancy"
ITO prove this we have added TO the
! documents of the trial the interviews
with Dr. Procaccini, major in the
Royal Navy, who travelled as Royal
commissioner aboard the steamer
which brought Charlton from New
York to Naples. DR.. Procaccini, after
) having studied Charlton for about two
weeks, expressed the opinion that at
J the time of the crime he was in
state of moral infancy and therefore
i'm condition of not realizing he
cnormity of what he had done.
"In the majority Of cases these
crimes arouse the pity, not the sever
ity of the jurors. If the accused is
acquitted the reason will not be found
in sentimentality or distortion of the
human sense of justice, but rather n
the conviction Of the jurors that hui
man agencies should not inflict fu,'
ther penalties upon the man before
them who, having made a victim Of
another. is himself the victim of an
! ineXoTable fate
I'VE shall prove before the Court Of
Assizes that the Charlton drama is
due to an alteration which upset the
normal mental faculties of the accus-
ed This will clearly appear from the
| interrogation of witnesses, and our
contention will be further supported
by the testimony of Italian alienists.'