The officers of the state can, as a rule, be depended upon to deal properly and considerately with the known insane.  The insane are more trying and difficult than the criminal.  Courts and juries and the public, however, recognize their mental condition and do not visit them with vengeance.  It is appreciated and understood that they cannot with safety be left at large; but they are given the care and consideration that their condition demands.  If the criminal should be looked upon as are the creatures insane from natural causes, the State’s Attorney could then be trusted to prepare the case and do the best he could for all concerned.  The defendant would no longer be a defendant.  His case would be under investigation; his past life would be shown, his credits as well as his debits; he would need no lawyer, not even a public defender; no jury would be required, and the uncertainties and doubts that hang around judgments would be removed.  There would be little chance for a miscarriage of justice.  Even should there be, it would result in the speedy release of one against whom the public bore no ill-will.  One who was sick or insane would ordinarily not need a lawyer, as the state would bear him no malice and make no effort to do more than investigate the case and present the facts.  The whole matter should be a purely scientific attempt to find out the best thing to be done both for the interest of the public and the interest of the man.

No doubt, in many cases, men are convicted who are perfectly innocent of the crime of which they are accused.  This is especially true with the poor who can provide for no adequate defense and who perhaps have been convicted before of some misdemeanor or crime.  This is also often true in cases where there is great prejudice against the defendant, either on account of the nature of the case or of the defendant on trial.  For instance, during the recent war a wave of hysteria swept over the world, and courts and juries trampled on individual rights and freely violated the spirit of laws and constitutions.  The close of the war left the same intense feelings of bitterness which made justice impossible in cases where the charge savored of treason, and involved criticism of the government, or advocacy of a change of political systems.

Questions of race, religion, politics, labor and the like have always awakened violent feelings on all sides, have made bitter partisans and strict lines of cleavage, and have made verdicts of juries and judgments of courts the result of fear and hatred.  In spite of this, most of the inmates of prisons have done the acts charged in the indictments.  Why they did them, their states of mind, the conditions and circumstances surrounding them, what can be done to make them stronger and better able to meet life are never ascertained, and few courts or juries have ever deemed these things proper subjects for consideration or in any way involved in the case.