Plea of Insanity—The Trial of William Dove

Extract

When an arduous juridical contention is at its height, when a man's life is in the balance of opinion between those who hold him to be insane and irresponsible, and those who believe him to be a cruel and calculating murderer, the passions of men are so much involved that it is difficult to estimate the merits of a scientific question, with a perfect impartiality and freedom from prejudice and a single regard to truth. The trial of Wm. Dove, for the murder of his wife by strychnine, and his defence upon the plea of insanity, has been of a nature to elicit an unusual amount of personal feeling, both among those who considered him one of the most atrocious criminals of modern times, and those who conscientiously believed him to be incapable of crime on account of mental disease or infirmity. Sane or insane, Wm. Dove has paid the penalty of a murderer, and hath been sent to appear before the judgment seat of Him who “knoweth all things,” and will “judge righteous judgment.”