The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1921-06-16
The Peacock Verdict

There's no use calling in the doc
tor II you don't take his medicine.
Various aIienists, men whose stand
ing in their profession is unoues-
TONED; sWore at Lexington that DR..
Peacock is a paranoiac, not RESPONSE
bic for his acts. From the time it
topk to reach decision we Judge
t4aat the jury had it's doubts; but In
tee end it accepted the doctors word
OF a matter that a layman certainly
cannot judge, and returned a, verdict
accordingly. We have already heard
that verdict denounced as a crime sec
ond only to the murder of Taylor;
but would you have a juryman from
Rowan county set up his judgment on
a matter as difficult to determine as
mans mental condition against the
opinions of the most distinguished ex-
perts to be found in the country? In
view of the testimony given by the
alienists, it is hard to see how the
jury can be convicted off-hand
But it must be remembered that
while the jury acquitted Peacock it
did not recommend him as good
man to turn loose on a peaceful COM
nnunity. The members of the jury
acquitted him solely because they
would not vote to convict an insane
man of murder. Furthermore, the
particular type Of insanity which the
experts agreed afflicts the prisoner,
and which the jury believed caused
him to shoot Taylor, is paranoia.
John MACPHERSON says of this disease:
,ano:a is generally hopeless af-
fection from the point of view of re-
covery. It is apparent that
no form Of ordinary medical treat
ment can be of the least avail in
modifying it's symptoms" Such was,
in general, also the testimony of the
alienists heard at Lexington.
We have therefore the case pre-
sented of a man formally adjudged to
be afflicted with mental disease
which has already caused him to Kill
one man, and whose symptoms mo
form of ordinary medical treatment
can be of the least avail in modify
ing" The release of man. in that
condition would be an act /of sheer
madness-worthy of the paranoiac
himself. Hhe only possible course
that the authorities in justice to the
community, and no less in justice to
the man himself, can pursue is to or
der his confinement for the rest OF his
life. Man-killers cannot be permitted
to run at large, whether sane or IN
sane.
Predictions are being freely made
and wagers offered in Greensboro
that Peacock will be free man in six
months. We cannot believe 1t.
Such an end to the affair can event
uate only by deliberate effort to
make a travesty of justice, a mockery
of science effort in which sclen-
lists and officers of justice must nee
essarily Join. It is much more likely
that the Thomasville doctor will end
his days in lunatic asylum.
If Dr. Peacock is not insane, then
what he won is Pyrrhic victory; for
to a man of his type confinement for
life in an insane asylum is prospect
little preferable to death. In the mlch
more probable event that the alienlsts
knew their business, and the mans
mind is hopelessly affected, then one
can only stand aghast at the ruin
worse than death that has overWhelTn- |
ed q brain of such unusual powers,
and a temperament that held so much :
that was winning and worthy of ad- |
miration
From whatever angle one views it, |
it is a dark and drearv affair, and the
community through which its wreck !
age has been strewn is to be commits (
Grated. It will be many a year before
RECEIVERS from this thun-
der-stroke; and this generation may
not see the complete dissipation of the
evils that it has left.-Greensbo
News.