The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 1884.

Kumara Times, Issue 2352, 12 March 1884, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 1884.

It was quite right that the question of the sanity or the insanity of the prisoner Donoliue (on his trial for the murder of James Gifford in January last) should be left with a jury ; and now that the question has been decided it may not be out of place to venture a few remarks upon it. With all due deference to the skill of the medical gentlemen who expressed an opinion which threatened to thwart—if not altogether, at least fora time—thecourse of justice, we cannot help noticing that if the medical testimony in the question of Donohue's sanity had been slightly in favour of pronouncing the prisoner insane, such a verdict might also have been brought in by the jury specially empanelled to try the question of the prisoner's fitness to plead guilty or not guilty. It is a very old saying that " a drowning man will catch at a straw*," and the prisoner's plea reminds us very much of this t Not a word did the public hear of the accused's alleged insanity until he was yesterday brought face to face with those who were to pronounce the sentence of his innocence or guilt of the crime with which he is now charged. We do not intend, of course, to enter into that question whilst it is sub judice; it is only with that of the saneness or insaneness of the accused, which the jury has now settled by giving their verdict that " Donohne is sufficiently sane to be put on his trial." We contend that in such case tho evidence of Mr Cleary, Governor of the Hokitika Gaol, in whose charge the prisoner had been for the last two months, was of more consequence a great deal than that of the medical gentlemen's few minutes' interview with the man "who would probably know the object of their visit, and endeavour to act as he may have been advised. Drs. Hector and King, we are told, stated that the prisoner was insane, whilst Drs. Tivy and Eossetti differed from them. But Mr Cleary, who had the longest and bssfc opportunities of judging, said '•' he had seen nothing in the prisoner's manner to cause him to think he was insane." It may be in-k-resting to quote a casein point and the opiiiioa of no less uu autkoiity

than Baron Bramwell on this subject. In the case of Regina v. Leander, at the Central Criminal Court, London, in 1864, the learned judge, in charging the jury, said that—" Although medical men were often heard in Courts of Justice to define insanity, he thought ordinary men of the world were just as well qualified to form an opinion on these matters as they were." The jury, therefore, we consider were quite right in their verdict; for, if such a plea were allowed, it might be set up in every charge of murder, and the safety of the public would be at all times unassured.