Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/198

 186 IEDEBAL REPORTER. �"The opinions of experts upon the question of the sanity or insanitj- of the prisoner on the second day of July last, which is the only date as to whica it is necessary for the jury to agree upon, on that question, rests wholly upon the hypothetical questions proposed to them, and the jury must believe, from the evidence, that the supposed facts stated in a hypothetical question are true, to entitle the answer thereto to any weight." �I cannot givethat one because I think their opinions may be founded upon other grounds than the assumed truth of the hypothet- ical question; or, at least, that is a question for the jury, �• The fact of insanity or sanity of the prisoner before or after the second day of July, 1881, 18 not in issue in this case, except as collateral to the main fact of sanity or insanity at the time of shooting of President Garfleld, on the second, day of July, 1881; and the only evidence as to such main fact is in the testi- mony of the prisoner himself, his words and acts, and the testimony of the experts in answer to the hypothetical question." �That is, I think, one that I cannot give, becaase the question in- volved is one of fact for the jury. �And now, to sum up all that I have said, in a few words : �If you find from the whole evidence that, at the time of the com- mission of the homicide, the prisoner, in consequence of disease of mind, was laboring under such a defect of his reason that he was incapable of understanding what he was doing, or that it was wrong, — as, for example, if he was under an insane delusion that the Almighty had commanded him to do the act, and in consequence of that he was incapable of seeing that it was a wrong thing to do, — then he waa not in a responsible condition of mind, and was an object of com- passion, and not of justice, and ought to be now acquitted. �On the other hand, if you find that he was under no insane delu- sion, such as I have described, but had possession of his faculties and the power to know that bis act was wrong, and of his own free will deliberately conceived, planned, and executed this homicide, then, whether his motive was personal vindictiveness or political animosity, or a desire to avenge a supposed political wrong, or a morbid desire for notoriety, or fanciful ideas of patriotism or of the divine will, or you are unable to diseover any motive at all, the act is simply murder, and it is your duty to find him guilty. �Now gentlemen, retire to your rooms and consider this matter, and make due deliberation in the case of the United States against Gui- teau. �Mr. Scoville. Is it not proper that your honor should instruct the ��� �