The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-28
INSANITY PLEA MTSCARRIFD
Judge Convinced By Defense Testi- many That Prisoner Was Rational

Judge Convinced By Defense Testi-
 mony That Prisoner Was Rational
 The English judge usually gets a bit of diversion from the testimony of witness. Almost invariably a former lawyer, he has preserved some of his old pugracious humor. He frequently plays to. the gallery. In the memoirs of Sir Henry Hawkins there are numerous examples of his honor's fanciful and playful wit which de- lighted public and press.
 A man was being tried for murder farmer who had killed his wife. De- fendant's lawyer had announced that his client would plead insanity and introduced as witness the vicar of the defendants native village. His rever- ence entered the witness box. q am shocked-greatly shocked-by this crime" the churchman began. Il have been the vicar of this parish for thirty-four years and know the defend ant intimately. He attended church regularly until few days before the crime was committed. He was always a steady-going, temperate man, was de- voted to his wife and to his two chil- dren. Then one day, suddenly and with out explanation, he stopped coming to church. To my mind, he is insane.
 The judge, Maule by name, bent his brows upon the witness.
 "You say you have been the vicar here for thirty-four years?
 II have, my lord.
 "And you have conducted, divine services throughout that period! You have preached!" :,
 Sundays, morning and evening, and no doubt on week days?
 'On Sundays two sermons, my lord, and a supplementary homily every Tuesday," ,.
 You do all the preaching yourself"
 Certainly"
 "And this-er-unfortunate, deten- ant, you say, heard every one Of your sermons until the day that he killed his wife?"
 Absolutely"
 "Never missed sermon, lecture or homily, eh? Not a single One?'
 Never, my lord"
 "You write your sermons yourself, and deliver them yourself? Is that true"
 "Yes, my lord.'
 The judge made a few penciled nota- tions-added, multiplied-and turned to the counsel for the defense.
 Here is the situation," said he. This excellent vicar here has writ ten with his own hand and spoken with his own lips in the presence Ot the defendant-let's see-one hundred and four Sunday sermons and fifty two Tuesday hOmilies a year. That makes exactly 156 sermons, lectures and what-not year. This performance covered a period of thirty-four years which brings us to the staggering total of 5,3O4 sermons in the lifetime of this unhappy murderer" Here the judge turned to the jury.
 Five thousand three hundred and four sermons !" he repeated with em- phasis. "All delivered by the same reverend gntleman-a man respected and beloved, no doubt, in his parish. Still, always the same sort, of sermon and the same clergyman! Has it not occurred to you reverend sir, that per haps the defendant stopped attending church for the sake of a-shall we say-a little change? His counsel has entered plea of insanity, but I must say, gentlemen of the jury, that I, for my part, find him entirely rational entirely sop
 The case for the defense appeared to be lost. The defendants counsel could hardly plead insanity, so he pulled out all the sentimental stops-the poor be- reaved family, the children left alone on the farm, mother dead, father in jail. He painted so vivid a picture of the little cottage in the country that, in the end, the jury acquitted the prisoner.
 A few days later the successful at torney was buttonholed on the street by brother of the legal profession.
 "A triumph, my dear feHow!" cried the latter. But a bad job, neverthe- less. I saw that farm the other day and saw the children-pOor little things! What do you suppose they were doing the day their father was being tried for murder? We'll, they were hanging the old farm cat by the neck, and, as the poor thing struggled, they danced about it singing This is the way poor daddy will go! This is the Tvay pOor daddy will 20 r"