The Trial of the Insane for Crime: A Historical Retrospect [excerpt]

     At the trial of Colgosz, the assassin of President McKinley, the position of counsel for the prisoner was thought to be so obnoxious that special measures were taken to have it filled; and the defence was but half-hearted and perfunctory. The man was really tried by public opinion long before his formal trial in [50][51] court. It was such a case as under the old common law would not have been allowed counsel at all; and the question of the man’s insanity was as badly presented as it would have been in the Court of King’s Bench in the 17th century. Human nature does not change much, even if the laws do.