A Treatise on the Law and Practice of Naval Courts-martial

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J. Murray, 1851 - 319 pages

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Page 130 - ... 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 130 - ... to establish a defence on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that at the time of committing the act, the 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 129 - 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 128 - What is the law respecting alleged crimes committed by persons afflicted with insane delusion in respect of one or more particular subjects or persons : as, for instance, where at the time of the commission of the alleged crime the accused knew he was acting contrary to law, but 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 supposed public benefit?
Page 132 - ... the English judges replied, "We think the medical man, under the circumstances supposed, cannot in strictness be asked his opinion in the terms above stated, because each of those questions involves the determination of the truth of the facts deposed to, which it is for the jury to decide, and the questions are not mere questions upon a matter of science, in which case such evidence is admissible. But...
Page 55 - ... on the trial of any issue joined, or of any matter or question or on any inquiry arising in any suit, action or...
Page 130 - ... 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, as we conceive, so accurate when put generally, and in the abstract, as when put to the party's knowledge of right and wrong, in respect to the very act with which he is charged.
Page 43 - Hilary term, applied at such sittings to put off the trial, on the ground of the absence of a material witness...
Page 153 - But no power on earth, except the authority of parliament, can send any subject of England out of the land against his will; no, not even a criminal.

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