CRIMINAL OE INSANE?

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 83, 15 October 1879, Page 3

CRIMINAL OE INSANE?

Cibcumstangbs have come to our knowledge respecting the man Nefison, who was last week sentenced to a months' imprisonment for breaking open a portmanteau and writing desk at the Denbigh Hotel, which lead us to believe that the man is .either "a lunatic or insane. It seems that he was lodging at a boardinghouse m the township' prior to his previous conviction, and had betrayed unmistakeable symptoms of aberation of intellect, which were noticed by the other lodgers. At the expiration of his former sentence he made his way to his old. abode, and the unanimous opinion of the lodgers there was that he wasworse. If this be really the case the man is not responsible for his actions,- and m the interests of society he should be confined m an asylum until he has recovered and not be immured within -the gloomy walls of a prison, to be again let loose upon'the public when his. term- of imprisonment has expired. We trust tlibt enquiries will/be instituted into this fellows case. If a murder be comraitted by an insance person, he does not pay the penalty of his "crime on the: gallows, but is properly provided for, and, we see no sufficient reason; why a much less heinous crime should be treat edJdifEerently. If the man's/reason be dethroned, that, surely is misfortune enough, without having others piled upohlt.' •'.. ; ,«i r