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Show H j ! ' NOT TOO SURE. H 11 . The public should not too swiftly condemn the Hj e ,' vcidict in the McGrath case. It is quite possible H i j that the only error committed was in not announcing HJkJJL the belief that the prisoner was insane. When a Hfffi man kills the nearest friend that he ever had, with HHr ' no cause for the act apparent, the presumption shoulJ jBf ' be that he is insane. But no matter, we care only to Bflg relate a circumstance near Susanville, California. HiB 'i Some years ago a man brutally murdered his wife. !jj The couple had lived together for thirty years. The crime was so atrocious that Creed Haymond, an em- ' inent lawyer was sent for to take charge of the pros- ecution. He was a most eloquent speaker, his feel- nfll ings became more and more inflamed as the facts HBfj were brought out on the trial and his closing argu- Hlf inent electrified court, jury and audience. The de- Hi fense was weak, the lawyers trying merely to make ij ) a showing that actual proof of the killing could be IHu I fastened upon the prisoner. When the jury was sent IHK out a few of the gentlemen present including Judge IHBllI Sexton, the presiding judge, and Haymond met at HHfiS dinner, and one, of those present was asked what the nMBflNJHF' vcidict of the jury would be. The reply was "guilty of couisc,, the jury can do nothing else under the circumstances, but it will be all wrong. The place for the prisoner is in a lunatic asylum." This was derided by Haymond and his thought uas emphasized by the Judge, who declaied that he never heard of a more atrocious murder. "The very atrocity of the case Ought to excite the suspicion of insanity," was the reply. The prisoner was found guilty, but what was said at the dinner table nwoke a little doubt so that both the judge and Haymond signed a petition that the sentence be commuted com-muted to imprisonment. Ten years later the writer met Creed Haymond, Mho said: "Do you remember the case of old man' Thompson, whom I piosecuted for murder in Susanville? Susan-ville? Well, 1 nover made such a mistake in my life as I did there. After the trial I began to study the case and the circumstances attending it from a scientific point of view, I procured all the authorities author-ities on the different phases of insanity and studied them until I nearly went insane myself. I was vain enough at the time to think I made rather a brill-liant brill-liant prosecution of that man, I read enough later to convince me that every fact I advanced as incon-testible incon-testible proof of guilt was absolute evidence of the insanity of the poor wietch. Had he been executed I would have died of remorse." |