Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1924-11-05
MCDONALD GUILTY
LIFE SENTENCE FOR BOY WHO
SHOT TEACHER.
Unmoycd by Either Verdict or the
Observation-Disclosures from Justice
Dunn's Charge to Jury.

fenced to life imprisonment at the
State prison in Thomaston. The
verdict was returned by the jury
just after noon Thursday, after
about two hours deliberation.
The Mcdonald boy heard the YER
dict with the same immobility that
marked his appearance throughout
the trial The parents. however,
were deeply affected and his mother
had TO be assisted from the court
room. The same disinterestedness
marked the boys attitude when he
was called into court Friday to re-
ceive sentence. When Justice Dunn
asked him if he had anything to say
before sentence was pronounced, he
merely shook his head, and as Clerk
of Courts r, f. Mahoney read the
sentence of life imprisonment al hard
labor at ThomastOn, the boy did not
waver.
The defence relied solely upon the
testimony of the alienists that Nc
Donald had mind development of
a ten and one-half years old boy,
though the records showed him to be
over fifteen years of age. In answer
to question by the Court, both
alienists testified that he did have
the mental capacity to determine the
difference between right and wrong
The arguments by Attorney Cen
eral Shaw and Edward p Murray,
.pnfo11cnI
afternoon, We're able presentations of
the respective sides of the case
Judge Dunn, in his charge to the
Jury, which was followed with in
terest by a crowded court room. and
particularly by members of the bar,
gave a mastery and unbiased pre-
sentation of the facts in the case
that the jury was to decide, and
clear explanation of the law that
was to guide the jurors in their CON
of the case. Concerning
the mental condition of the respon-
dent which entered into the case,
Jadge Dunn said;
Unto this case has come not dis
pute as to the existence or non
existence ON the prisoners part Of
the mental state known and recog-
nized in the law as insanity, the
symptoms or outward manifestations
and phases and effects of which are
well known to those who have de-
voted their time and attention to its
study, but the proposition that when
the deed was done the respondents
Inn laolyinu n fbof
having reference to his physical or
chronological age, his mind was inn
mature in intelligence
at is not pretended that he was
hallucinated or deluded in general or
that he had authorizations confined
or limited numbers of objects or that
he was rendered incapable of reason
ing in consequence of functional dis
order of the brain not congenital or
born with him, or that he har total
want of the reasoning powers from
malformation of the organ of thought
at the time of birth. The argument
is not the unsoundness of his mind
but that his sound mind was retarded
in its development so that he had not
the capacity to commit crime or If he
had such capacity he had not the ca
pacity to deliberate and premeditate;
that he didnot conserve and entertain
the mental intent and feeling to muir
der. Such is the argument of the de-
Tense. But no witness assumed to
say that if the respondent did the
killing he was not intelligent enough
to understand the nature of his act
and know that it was wrong
"Wer, the prisoner being more
than fourteen chronological years of
age. if the unlawful killing be ade-
Quately proved, the crime is murder,
unless the respondent repels the
malice which the fact of the deed, ii
done by him, implies, He must dis
pei the malice, that burden is his,
THE position in which you are
placed in the case is peculiar. In
ordinary trials you have the testi-
mony of witnesses as to the existence
of certain facts and on them find
verdict. With regard to the defense
advanced by the prisoner in the hope
of reducing his crime to manslaugh-
ter you are asked to accept the evil
dence of the opinions of medical
men. This results from the fact that
the subject concerns the prisoner
mind. The mind is invisible, i'm
ponderable, intangible and i'm
measurable. The minutest tilament
of matter, the air itself, can be
weighed, but there are no scales in
which the mind can be balanced;
perhaps it may be measured other
wise with approximate exactness. All
that has been testified in regard to
this is for you to weigh it and as you
find it entitled to credit.
Ordinary persons no matter how
intelligent cannot give an opinion,
| but the physician can give you his
| opinion, still it is your opinion, your
| Judgment and not that of doctor
| which is to make up the verdict,
| How much reliance you can place IN