Show the responsibility Ee of insane criminals trials for murder have in ina a large proportion of cases been converted into farces since the plea of insanity has become recognized as an excuse for crime the ca cases ses in which junies juries uries convict where the slightest pretense of insanity is set up are very few and criminal and their counsel are well aware of this fact and quick to take advantage of it the greater the crime and the more direct the proof the greater are the chances of success for a plea of insanity to offer such a plea in a case ofa of a simple street knockdown would provoke derision but let the assaulter kill hill the victim with knife or pistol and the plea of insanity will bo be listened to with attention if the murder is ferociously brutal 0 or r without the excuse of reasonable provocation the chances are allin all ali in favor of the escape of the perpetrator on the ground of insanity juries and in some cases courts also proceed on the theory that a person person in sound mind cannot commit murder though capable of every other species of crime and though the bhe aberration of intellect may be but momentary commencing and ending wit with h the blow of the knife or the tiie pulling of the trigger it is sufficient to relieve the murderer from responsibility for the dead the result of this is the increase of the highest class of crime and the indifference of the perpetrators they know there is but little fear of punishment so long as the crime is sufficiently atrocious so far has this gone that the soundest thinkers are turning their attention to the best means of remedying a frightful and rapidly growing evil dr william A hammond the tile well known medical expert in cases of insanity has published a monograph on criminal lIn insanity sanity in which he takes the tile ground that an insane person is to some extent res responsible for his liis acts and should be made accountable furthermore he assumes that the true object of the penal law is to protect society rather than thail to punish the erl cri criminal filial and that the lur lui lunatic latic who is dangerous to the peace and welfare of society should be placed beyond the ability of doing mischief the law makes no allowance for ignorance in dealing with criminals the victim ot of defective or vicious training being dealt with as hard hardly y as the person who offended with the full knowledge of the unlawfulness and immorality in of the act and extent of the penalty dr hammond holds holda that the lunatic should be placed in the same category as the victim of circumstances isho esho who inho was bred in poverty and vice in support of his assertion that the insane are morally accountable in in some deglee for their acts he cites instances where undoubted lunatics have discussed acts of murder by lunatics and have had their own murderous propensities checked or given larger rein to by the manner in which the perpetrators of those murderous acts were treated the lunatic has lias power of controlling his actions in a great degree and dr hammond doubts if any lunatic has a an n irresistible impulse although many have impulses that are ai 41 almost irresistible 11 ll 0 t these ailiese view views coming cociu from a man of such wide experience among the insane and especially among the criminal insane will attract attention and will probably provoke much discussion cleveland herald |