Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1960-11-25

@SSSSA Az PASAHSNA Ny
a recent item in the news
papers quoting the police as
saying that there are several
hundred sex deviates at large
in the city of which approx
mately so were considered
capable" Of committing the
crime against the Condetti
boy.
This statement forcibly
brought to my mind an ex-
perience I had as a law clerk
awaiting admission to the bar
in a northern State. AS a
young clerk I was assigned to
hopeless or Improbable mat
tiers; among them was an in
vestigation into the possibility
Of obtaining the release on
habeas corpus of a young
man who was then incarcer-
ated in the home for the
criminal insane. 1t turned out
that the prisoner had never
committed any crime, and as
far as I know, has not COM
mitted one since. He had been
treated by a doctor for a leg
injury and it was his opinion
that the doctors treatment
had been inept and careless
and had resulted in a per-
manent injury to his leg.
Under the stress Of his re-
sentiment he had been so UNI
wise as to have written a
letter to the doctor which
might have been construed as
containing threatening words.
He was very quickly commit
ted as a dangerous paranoid
who might do bodily harm to
the doctor. He appeared per-
fectly sane to me, assured me
that he had never intended
harm to the doctor and he
regretted his letter. However,
he remained in the home for
the criminal insane until the
doctor died several years
later. when he was released.
I kept track Of him for sew
eral years, and as stated
above, I am unaware that he
ever committed a crime at
any time.
If the law imprisons an in
nocent person on the uncer-
tain possibility that he might
do bodily harm to. another,
even though he has no rec
ord of committing a crime or
doing violence, why, in the
name Of humanity, should
not sex deviates, who always
have a previous record and
are reporters, be incarcerated
for the protection of innocent
children? I can't rationalize
these two differing practices.
Maybe our Court of Appeals
with its record of tender So
licitude for persons accused
OF acts of personal violence
can give an explanation.
Barrister.
Il 4 y
We seem to have an un-
usual and perhaps dangerous
situation in our courts wherein
psychiatrists are replacing
jurieS and judges. A public
official and an industrialist,
in two separate cases, avoid
jail sentences by pleading
mental illness; a liquor store
proprietor is acquitted after
a psychiatrist testifies that
he suffers from pathological
alcoholism" On the other
hand, there is the fantastic
case Of q man who was jailed
on the testimony Of a PSYCHE
artist who relied on informa-
ton furnished by a man
claiming occult powers.
Psychiatry. at best, is an
inexact science, and where
you have two psychiatrists
you are likely to have two
different opinions. Also. psy-
chiatrists, being human, are
subject to being Influenced
in favor Of their clients who,
after all, pay their fees.
The rights of the accused
must be protected, but, at the
same time, the guilty should
not escape punishment and
the public must be protected
from potential sex criminals
and murdererS.
The answer may be in q
full time public psychiatrist.
Frank Bryars.
X X
Society owed that little boy
the duty of preventing his
foul murder. Among other
things. it owed him the duty
Of seeing to it that the
known perverts" now being
questioned by the police were
placed, as soon as they were
known" where it would be
impossible - absolutely and
finally impossible-for the
whole of them working to-
gether, to murder one single
1