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

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Reading Time: 3 minutes [398 words]

Here is the translated text as follows:

46 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

Anyone who has made advancements in the field of science cannot help but be impressed by the great truth that "man is wonderfully and fearfully made."

Insanity can be detected by a mere look! However, there is feigned insanity, which can be so convincing that it often baffles even the most enlightened investigators. There is also concealed insanity, which can be so crafty and subtle that it deceives even the most experienced keepers and physicians of lunatic asylums when deciding on a patient's discharge. In other words, the insane patient is aware of his disease, knows the signs of its existence, and knows how to use wisdom and willpower to deceive his keeper and pass for sane. He knows how to suppress the indications of his insanity and successfully feign sanity. This is a common occurrence in insane hospitals, though 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, before Judge Lackland, a man was tried for murder and convicted. He was defended by counsel who held highly respectable positions in their profession. The jury box contained as 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 upon—no preparation of the case was made with any such issue, and no evidence was brought to sustain it. The counsel saw no indication of mental disorder in their client—nothing to create a suspicion of insanity. The trial began and ended without allusion to that modern invention, the plea of insanity, which is 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 overruled 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 ordered a committee of six physicians to go to the jail, and after examination of the prisoner, to report in writing his condition as 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...