MEDICAL VIEW OF MURDER.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3595, 6 October 1920, Page 6

MEDICAL VIEW OF MURDER.

AN ACT OF INSANITY. . JUDGE REJECTS VJEW. Medical experts who gave evidence during the trial of Charles Henry Millett, a young mess-room steward, of Falmouth, for the murder of Mary "Williams, of Swansea, put forward the theory that every murder and sui-' Cide is insane. There was no effort made by the defence to deny the. commission of the crime, for prisoner bad admitted it, and,said that he intended to commit suicide. The plea put forward by Sir Marley Samson was that the accused was insane. Dr. Trevor Evans,,who is the police . and prison surgeon, said that he had bad prisoner under observation and found no trace of insanity, but it was quite possible for prisoner to be sound now and insane at the time he committed the murder. W : ien prisoner took the girl's life, he had discovered that he had 'contracted a certain disease, and was under the delusion that he could not be Cured. He was, therefore in an abnormal state, and could not testify either Tight or wrong.

Dr. Evans added that every person ■Who,, attempted suicide was insane and every person who made up his mind to murder was insane, and not responsible for his action.

When the judge whether Buck persons should be found "not guilty" of murder on the grounds of insanity, Dr. Lancaster replied, "Yes, and they will be in a hundred years time."

Summing up, his lordship said if th'ey administered the law according •to Dr. Evans or Dr. Lancaster, no person could ever be properly convicted of murder, which, as a punishable crime might just as well be erased from/the law ■ ~

According to them, every person •"-who done that which'would ren-

tier them lialue to be .convicted of murder, ought, as a matter of course, to be found insane and sent to a lunatic asylum. The jury found the prisoner guilty, with a strong recommendation to mercy, and sentencing the prisoner to death, the judge said he had never heard the defence of insanity in such a charge as this put forward on more flimsy grounds. But he promised to forward the jury's recommendation to the proper quarter.

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