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Show MOVE TO CHECK OVERPLAYING OP v INSANITY PLEAS The American people hare Ions been convinced that the "Insanity plea In criminal courts la decidedly overworked. It is gratifying and not a little surprising, therefore, Bayi the St. Taul Dispatch, to learn that the psychiatrists, whose science has contributed most to the furthering of the insanity plea, are now making an attempt to close this loophole In the law. At a recent annual mooting of the American Psychiatric association in New York a committee report was read advocating radical reforms In legal and penal procedure in capital cases In which a plea of insanity had been entered by the defendant. It was recommended that "the Judge shall eliminate all evidence of the mental condition of the defendant except ex-cept such evidence as makes the mental men-tal disease so obvious a lay Jury can anderstand it." Time and again Juries have been mystified by the clinical subterfuges and technicalities technicali-ties of Insanity pleas In criminal trials. On too many occasions the twelve good men and true have been overwhelmed by psychological fol-derol fol-derol and have permitted justice to be cheated. To the ordinary run of citizens who make up Jury panels there are mentally only two kinds of people, the normal and the crazy. The various vari-ous grades and degrees of mental and nervous disorders which Is the psychiatrist's field he comprehends not at all. When an Insanity plea la entered the jury merely wants to know whether the accused Is or la not responsible for his acts. Keeping Keep-ing such evidence In an understandable understand-able form will help the Juries anil put a limit on the abuse of Insanity pleas. |