The Trial of William Freeman: For the Murder of John G. Van Nest, Including the Evidence and the Arguments of Counsel, with the Decision of the Supreme Court Granting a New Trial, and an Account of the Death of the Prisoner, and of the Post-mortem Examinaton of His Body by Amariah Brigham, M. D., and Others |
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Page 20
... reason , denied him . Some of the police appear to have considered him too dangerous for such a liberty - some , that by his resistance of authority he had forfeited the privilege - and others that he was not susceptible of any ...
... reason , denied him . Some of the police appear to have considered him too dangerous for such a liberty - some , that by his resistance of authority he had forfeited the privilege - and others that he was not susceptible of any ...
Page 30
... reason to doubt his accountability . I suppose him to be a man of very weak intellect , very indeed . I should , however , make a distinction between imbecility of mind and insanity . I heard of the murders ; read most and perhaps all ...
... reason to doubt his accountability . I suppose him to be a man of very weak intellect , very indeed . I should , however , make a distinction between imbecility of mind and insanity . I heard of the murders ; read most and perhaps all ...
Page 33
... reason why he is not accountable . Think I have never heard the facts contradicted . Have heard the counsel censured for putting in a plea of insanity for the prisoner . I think from the precaution he took , and the escape he made , he ...
... reason why he is not accountable . Think I have never heard the facts contradicted . Have heard the counsel censured for putting in a plea of insanity for the prisoner . I think from the precaution he took , and the escape he made , he ...
Page 41
... reason for that was , that I did not think it of any use to flog him . He was an intractable and rather singular sort of a thing , any way . I should think he had a very small degree of intellect or reason . I discovered a change in him ...
... reason for that was , that I did not think it of any use to flog him . He was an intractable and rather singular sort of a thing , any way . I should think he had a very small degree of intellect or reason . I discovered a change in him ...
Page 48
... reason , or power to draw inferences . [ Witness further testified in substance as upon the traverse . See post- ] PHILO H. PERRY , called and sworn on the part of the prisoner , testified : I have seen the prisoner and tried to ...
... reason , or power to draw inferences . [ Witness further testified in substance as upon the traverse . See post- ] PHILO H. PERRY , called and sworn on the part of the prisoner , testified : I have seen the prisoner and tried to ...
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Common terms and phrases
AMARIAH BRIGHAM answer appeared arrested Arsdale asked Auburn believe brain Brigham called and sworn capital punishment Cayuga County challenged for principal charge child committed conversation conviction count court crazy crime CROSS EXAMINATION.-I DAVID WINNER deaf defence dementia deranged discovered disease district attorney Doctor evidence of insanity examination facts faculties Freeman gentlemen guilty hear heard Helen Holmes homicide horse idiot indicate insanity insane delusion insane persons intellect jail John G judge juror jury kill knew knife laughed lived looked mania mind monomania murder negro Nest family never night opinion Owasco Lake peremptory challenge principal cause prisoner prisoner's counsel punishment question reason recollect reply sane sanity seen Sidney Freeman smile spoke stabbed stealing Suppose swear symptoms talked tell testified testimony thing thought told took trial tried triors Utica verdict wanted witness wound wrong Wyckoff
Popular passages
Page 465 - ... to establish a defence on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was labouring 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.
Page 428 - Can a medical man conversant with the disease of insanity, who never saw the prisoner previously to the trial, but who was present during the whole trial and the examination of all the witnesses, be asked his opinion as to the state of the prisoner's mind at the time of the commission of the alleged crime? or his opinion whether the prisoner was conscious at the time of doing the act that he was acting contrary to law, or whether he was labouring under any and what delusion at the time?
Page 475 - Also if a man in his sound memory commits a capital offense, and before arraignment for it, he becomes mad, he ought not to be arraigned for it ; because he is not able to plead to it with that advice and caution that he ought.
Page 373 - In order to constitute a crime, a person must have intelligence and capacity enough to have a criminal intent and purpose; and if his reason and mental powers are either so deficient that he has no will, no conscience or controlling mental power, or if, through the overwhelming violence of mental disease, his intellectual power is for the time obliterated, he is not a responsible moral agent, and is not punishable for criminal acts.
Page 434 - To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes?
Page 174 - That before a plea of insanity should be allowed, undoubted evidence ought to be adduced that the accused was of diseased mind, and that at the time he committed the act he was not conscious of right and wrong.
Page 428 - Lordships' inquiries are confined to those persons who labour under such partial delusions only, and are not in other respects insane, we are of opinion that, notwithstanding the party accused did the act complained of with a view, under the influence of insane delusion, of redressing or revenging some supposed grievance or injury, or of producing some public benefit, he is nevertheless punishable according to the nature of the crime committed, if he knew at the time of committing such crime that...
Page 429 - ... not, as we conceive, so accurate when put generally and in the abstract, as when put with reference to the party's knowledge of right and wrong in respect to the very act with which he is charged.
Page 372 - That if the prisoner was laboring under some controlling disease which was, in truth, the acting power within him which he could not resist, then he will not be responsible.
Page 482 - The mode of putting the latter part of the question to the jury on these occasions has generally been, whether the accused at the time of doing the act knew the difference between right and wrong; which mode, though rarely, if ever, leading to any mistake with the jury, is not...