191 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

Here is the translated text as follows:

EDWARD D. WORRELL. 159

If an individual does not know the nature and quality of the act, or, if knowing it, is unconscious that it was wrong, then the law adjudges him to be an improper subject of punishment and acquits him of any accountability. However, the jury should be careful not to confuse a depravation of the moral sense arising from mental disorder with that which results from a lack of proper culture, or from the long and habitual indulgence of the baser propensities and passions. The principle which exempts from responsibility extends only to that class in whom the depravation of the moral sense is traceable to mental disorder alone.

The second class involves cases of partial insanity, which may and do exist. In these cases, the person affected, although otherwise capable of reason and judgment, labors under insane delusions as to the existence of facts and circumstances. Had these facts and circumstances actually existed, they would seem to justify any degree of violence proportionate to their nature and character, and to relieve the person of any guilty consciousness in consequence of such an act. For example, under the influence of his delusion, he erroneously supposes another to be in the act of attempting to take his life, and he kills him to prevent it. Or, he insanely believes himself to have sustained, or be about to sustain, some other grievous injury in his person, or otherwise, and that taking the life of his supposed wrongdoer is in law and morals the proper and legitimate remedy to redress the wrong. Or, there may be any other insane delusion which prevents the party from perceiving the guilty quality of the act done by him under its influence. In all these and similar cases, the principle of irresponsibility applies. However, the jury should again bear in mind that in all the cases referred to in the second class, in which the law exempts a person from accountability for an act under its influence, it must appear that the insane delusion is of a character which naturally excites the committing of the particular act done, or acts of the same or similar class. If the act done is a homicide, the insane delusion which excuses it must be of a nature and character, the usual and natural tendency of which is to steal or break out into acts of violence and of blood.