Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1919-10-15
Kelsey and Society Convicted.
Rutland Herald)

The refusal of the supreme court
to send back for another trial Bert
E. Kelsey of Orleans, convicted OF the
murder of James Allen, brings direct
ly home to society the responsibility
for taking the life of this grown-up
child who committed a crime against
the laws of the state, of which he, at
least, must have a very vague idea.
Although the expert and support
ing evidence went to show that hel-
sey was responsible to the degree OF
knowing right from wrong, 1t seems
undisputed that his is a case of ar
rested development; that, in brief, he
is a man of "a with mind and rea-
soning power of a child In fact, DIR.
| O'Neil of the state hospital, alienist,
testified that his mental equipment,
and attainment were those of child
eight years old.
| Should Kelsey, therefore, be held IN
| the same degree responsible as man
| of normal if limited mentality? Has
| society a right to exact from him the
| terrible penalty of his life when that
life is so evidently imperfect and
when society has undoubtedly failed
to do its duty to him?
| Laws, of course, cannot be enacted
| for one specific case, and the orderly
processes of the courts must continue
along accepted lines, but what shall
we say to the social system that per-
mitS such units as Kelsey, who GER
tainly must have been recognized as
a defective as early as his eighth
year, to roam at large without re-
straint or special study, until,
through some unexplainable atavism
of his mind he picks up the iron bar,
pursues the aged man, strikes him
down and robs him of his money?
When Kelsey was first convicted
and sentenced to death, it is said that
one of the officers asked him as he
came back to the Jail, how he got
along:
"Well, l got along a d sight
better than | thought l would, an
swered the child-man who had been
sentenced to death in the electric
chair!
When Justice Powers of the su-
preme court asked him if he had any
thing to say as to why the sentence
of the law should not be passed upon
him Kelsey replied:
81 don't know as / have" and, upon
the Justices repeating for his under
standing that he was convicted of the
murder of James Allen, Kelsey said:
I''Yes, sir" Do these trifing and
immaterial facts throw no light on
Kelsey's mental condition and respon-
sibiEty?
The Herald is not for a moment
questioning the conduct of the case
so far as the courts and the jury are
concerned, but what has society to
say as to its responsibility for Kel-
sey and his defective mentality, blank
and clear as child'S from the eigth
year up, yet capable of receiving and
reacting to impulses and suggestions
that finally resulted in his terrible
crime?
We say that it is for the purpose OF
discovering and segregating the Kel-
seys of society that the Brandon
school for defective children was
authorized by law; that it is to fol.
low up and commit such children thai
the board of charities and probation
was created and for which purpose in
part it does its work; that society
rather than retreating along such
lines, must advance, and presently
say to men and women who bring de-
; fective children into the world or who
are themselves defective-you can
/ not, under Vermont law, bring upon
the state the burden and menace OF
! your lmbecile or criminally inclined
, offspring!
II Is DOld and somewhat advanced
! thing to say, and the limitations OF
? our constitution are such that we
| cannot go so far in that direction as
{ some sociologists and alienists might
prescribe bat even under preseni
avs, we can segregate feeble-mindeC
: glrIS and women, and, unless signs
) fail, something rather radical NAV be
submitted to the next legislature il
the way of restraining the other sex
1t would be clearly unfair and i'm
possible to hold individuals RESPONSE
bic for Kelsey, but certainly the old
: easy-going, not-my- neighbor's- keeper
! system and method must be hello
; guilty with the unfortunate and neg
lected defective, whose childish minC
absorbed and reacted to criminal i'm
a pulses when intelligent segregation
: and training might have made him !
: fairly useful and certainly Harmless.
: member of society.
q We cannot electrocute society. b1,-
1 certalnlv society is guilty with KeIse,
i at least for criminal negligence
d The best burglar NOWADAYS doc.
: not carry Ngun"-he has set ~
: scales set o.