Excerpt from The North American Review, 1882, Vol. 134 The rule of evidence on the subject of is any, varies greatly in the difierent sonable doubt of the sanity of the accused is for the acquittal of the criminal; in others, establish his insanity by a preponderance of other States, like New Jersey, the rule of law is as Chief-j ustice Hornblower, that the accused must establish insanity as the State establishes his guilt that is, beyond a sonable doubt. The first view is based apparently on general presumption of innocence, and the latter two on technical ground of a plea of confession and avoidance. 1 first that only a reasonable doubt is required to estahll irresponsibility for crime - is altogether the most common, I under it the records of the courts show that almost any murdd may be acquitted. Mr. Justice Hogeboom, of the Supreme Co of New York, so charged in the notorious case of the People Cole, under which he was quickly acquitted of the murder Hiscock - the defense being emotional insanity. This, it m' be admitted, is as extreme an application of the rule of a reas able doubt as can be found in the courts. Under such judil rulings, society is absolutely without protection from the be! Against the assassin, and the proceedings are little less thal dangerous farce. Cole was admitted to be sane the mom before and the moment after the murder was committed. 'j infirmity kindly remained just long enough to bring him wit the rule of an unreasonable doubt. The only safe rule of law, under this state of things, by wh government can proceed to protect society by the adminis tion of punishment in capital crime, is the character of criminal, and the commission of the act of crime is the 0 conclusive proof of the tendency of such character in the di tion of crime. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.