078 Slide – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

46 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

advancement in this department of science who is not im-
pressed with the great truth that ‘‘man is wonderfully and
fearfully made.”

Insanity detected by a look! There is feigned insanity,
so like the real as often to baffle enlightened investigation.
There is concealed insanity, so crafty and subtle as to deceive
the best informed keepers and physicians of lunatic asylums
on a question of discharge. In other words, the insane pa-
tient knows his disease, knows the indications of ita exiat-
enee and knows how, by the exercise of wisdom and the force
of will, to deceive his keeper and pass for sane. He knows
hew to suppress the indications of his insanity, and succeas-
fully feigns sanity. This is the history of insane hospitals;
but you were not exactly prepared by: the opening speech
of the prosecution to believe it.

At the present term of the St. Louis Criminal Court, be-
fore Judge Lackland, a man was tried for murder and con-
vieted. He was defended by counsel of highly respectable
position in their profession. The jury box contained aa much
intelligence and discrimination as our panels there ordinarily
furnish. The counsel were employed by the prisoner, not
assigned by the Court. The trial lasted several days. The
defense of insanity was not relied on—no preparation of
the case was made with any such issue—no evidence brought
to sustain it. The counsel saw no indication of mental dis-
order in their client—nothing to create a suspicion of in-
sanity. The trial began and ended without allusion to that
modern invention, the plea of insanity, so odious to justice,
and so offensive to this prosecution. The verdict was guilty.
A motion for a new trial was filed by his counsel and over
raled on all the grounds set out in the motion; but the Judge,
on his own motion, set aside the verdict, because the defendant
was Insane when he committed the homicide! The Court or-
dered a committee of six physicians to go to the jail, and
after examination of the prisoner, to report in writing his
eondition aa to sanity. They did so, and pronounced him
sane. The Judge told them they were mistaken and ordered
a re-examination. The result of repeated examinations was