[Courts and Criminals by Arthur Train]@TWC D-Link bookCourts and Criminals CHAPTER X 8/21
Applying the legal test and translating the word "wrong" as contrary to the common morality of the community wherein he resided or contrary to law, Hadfield ought to have achieved his object and been given death upon the scaffold instead of being clapped, as he was, into a lunatic asylum. On the other hand, if the word "wrong" is judicially interpreted, it would seem to be given an elasticity which would invite inevitable confusion as well as abuse. Moreover, the test in question takes no cognizance of persons who have no power of control.
The law of New York and most of the states does not recognize "irresistible impulses," but it should admit the medical fact that there are persons who, through no fault of their own, are born practically without any inhibitory capacity whatever, and that there are others whose control has been so weakened, through accident or disease, as to render them morally irresponsible,--the so-called psychopathic inferiors. Most of us are only too familiar with the state of a person just falling under the influence of an anesthetic, when all the senses seem supernaturally acute, the reasoning powers are active and unimpaired, and the patient is convinced that he can do as he wills, whereas, in reality, he says and does things which later on seem impossible in their absurdity.
Such a condition is equally possible to the victim of mental disease, where the knowledge of right and wrong has no real relevancy. The test of irresponsibility as defined by law is hopelessly inadequate, judged by present medical knowledge.
There is no longer any pretence that a perception of the nature and quality of an act or that it is wrong or right is conclusive of the actual insanity of a particular accused.
In a recent murder case a distinguished alienist, testifying for the prosecution, admitted that over seventy per cent.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|