Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-10-10

~HICAGo Ill, Sept 21.-when big murder case
comes up for trial nowadays the puohc shr uts
~ Its shoulders us he rich or POOR the puOiIc
asks If he's rich he'll probably get on on ple VI
insanity; If he's poor suppose they'll CONVEX mn
This state of the public mind argues that there Is
son,ething lacking somewhere in present system
of dealing with the insanity plea To a certain eA CIR
the public is right; there is something wrong with In.
system though hardly the fact that money mas unuu
influence The been recognized by the eaoine
doctors and lawyers of the United States ana II Is "
be remedied
A committee composed of eight experts has been
working on the question six Its report mas
1rst baan accepted by the Institute of Criminal Law
which is branch of the Bar association II mas tne
approval Of the medical profession, and 1t VIII DC
introduced into legislatures and into congress
with view to having it substituted the statute
books for present law. With the endorsements nu
backing that it has, 1t will doubtless De written i
law though legislatures here and there may Oe $40"
to pass it, being shy of ehngs by habit ana prn-
ciple The new statute will be immensely slgnlncai
It will make big difference in the trlal not only ..
murder cases. of all sorts of cases. where mental
trouble may be used as defense
The committees bill is an attempt to reconcile law
and medicine legal according to those VINO are
Atted to Judge 1t a real reconciliation The doctor
and the lawyer been working at oross-purposes
for many years whenever the doctor was called INTO
court expert witness the progress Oh sclenoe
has dragged medicine so far apart that by this
time they speak different languages whenever an
aenst got on the stand it difficult to tell Where
his lob left off the judges began 1t was due 10
this confusion the insanity plea came to be
REGARDED as joke, mockery, by the nation at
large lust when medical progress is showing that 1t
ought to be regarded with all seriousness.
The mere fact alienists asked to pronounce
. nrisoner sane or insane that the law has not
been revised keep with medicine AS any alienist
will tell you insanity has to stand for so vague
+a+a that the term means little nothing. Applied
to the mind it about what illness" does when
onnlied to the body. If tell doctor III,
he NAV sympathze with you, but he cannot tell from
that description whether he ought to amputate your
foot or give you blue pill to relieve Nor can he
.e how illness will affect your actions 1t is the
same way with insanity
Nowadays physicians recognize a hundred forms of
mental Some authorities go so far as to say
that no sharp line be drawn between sanity and
insanity The two shade into each other imper
ceptbiy And yet the law may have man In whose
case n is necessary draw sharp and definite
line tndeed-the line between the electric chair and
freedom There chance for imperceptibe
shadings
The law has only sanity. That test is
over half century old, and down 10 from the
DAVIS when medicine working pretty exclusively on
the physical side of 1t is known as the right and
wrong test Does the accused know right from
xvronpP Did he know right from wrong when he COM
roitted his crime? all the law, strictly
strued wants in fixing responsibility. The
doctor wants entirely different line of evidence.
"The accused may known perfectly the difference
between right and wrong, and yet his mind may have
been so affected 1t would be unjust to hold him
responsible his actions, the modern mental
specialist.
Resides this difference between medical and legal
insanity there is, member of the committee points
ont an inconsistency the position law
alone To lay mind it looks almost as if the law
has been contradcting itself all along 1t interest
ing to note how all this contradiction about.
AWAY back 1s4s whereabouts a man named
McNaughten shot at the prime minister Of England.
II was tremendously important case in it's day. and
held public attention like general combined
with a general election. McNaughten acquitted
ground that he was insane when he fired the shot