294 



The Plea of Insanity, 



there can be no moral insaDity independent of mental^ a convenient 

 cover for moral depravity will have been removed, and the adminis- 

 tration of criminal justice relieved from much embarrassment. 

 Secondly, the Latv : 



When insanity is interposed as a defense, the court lays down the 

 rule of criminal responsibility, and the jury pass upon the fact of 

 insanity. In dealing with the issue a clear discrimination between 

 medical and legal insanity is of the first importance. A recognition 

 of the doctrine that the presence of medical insanity is not of itself 

 alone a valid excuse for crime will greatly narrow and simplify the 

 question. 



Establish a uniform rule touching legal responsibility, and so far as 

 the administration of justice is concerned, it would matter little how 

 wild the theories, or how fierce the conflict in the domain of medical 

 insanity. 



What is the true rule m respect to penal responsibility ? 



In 1843, the English House of Lords propounded certain questions 

 on this point to the fifteen judges, and received in substance the fol- 

 lowing answer : 



" The jury ought to be told in all cases that every man is presumed 

 to be sane, and to possess a sufiicient degree of reason to be responsi- 

 ble for his crimes until the contrary be proved to their satisfaction ; 

 and that to establish a defense on the ground of insanity, it must be 

 clearly proved that, at the time of committing the act, the party ac- 

 cused was laboring under such a defect of reason from disease of the 

 mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, 

 or if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was 

 wrong." 



This rule, as an abstract proposition, is adopted by the English 

 courts; but, like most common-law^ rules, it is flexible, susceptible 

 of adaption to various circumstances, and the judges have been liberal 

 in its administration. It is termed, in common parlance, the "right 

 and wrong test," and is applied with greater or less strictness in many, 

 perhaps a majority, of the American States. 



Were this the only and the uniform test of responsibility, the issue 

 of insanity would be comparatively simple. But it is held by high 

 authority, and with much strength of reason, that the " right and 

 wrong test " is not in all cases the only one by which penal insanity 

 is to be tried. 



It is claimed that the defense is sustained when, first, there was an 

 insane delusion from which the crime emanated; and secondly, that 

 when being insane the defendant was forced to the act by an irresist- 



