DRUNKENNESS AND MURDER.

Evening Star, Issue 14037, 19 April 1909, Page 4

DRUNKENNESS AND MURDER.

The appeal of Thomas Meade, who was sentenced to death at Leeds Assizes for the murder of a woman with whom ho had lived for seven years, was dismissed by Justices Darling, Walton, and Pickford, sitting at the Court of Criminal Appeal. Meade was represented by Mr Willoughby Jardine, who argued that the verdict should have been one of manslaughter, as the blow was given in a drunken quarrel in the night. Counsel contended that Lord Coleridge, who tried the case, misdirected the jury by saying that it must be proved that a man's reason was dethroned by drink to allow them to say that there was no intent. This, he argued, would lead the jury to think that they could only find a verdict of manslaughter if they thought the prisoner was insane; whereas the law did not so limit them. Mr Justice Darling said the original law was that an insane person was not liable to the same consequences, or to be judged by the same standards, as a sano person; but if the person was suffering from the effects of drunkenness he was not to be accused for the result of his acts. In 1819 certain immunity was granted to persons who committed deeds in" a condition of drunkenness, and since then several decisions had modified the rule. They considered • that it was not their duty to enlarge that rule by giving immunity beyond that partial immunity now enjoyed. "Where a judge addressed a jury, he must not be expected to deliver a treatise on the law. He spoke more on points of fact. In the words used by Lord Coleridge, there was a sufficient warning to the jury, seeing that he pointed out the fact that if the prisoner be insane, knowledge or intent was not presumed, but insanity was not pleaded in that case. The Court had carefully considered the case, and the words of Lord Coleridge. They were words which were not contained in any other judgment, but a judge could not be condemned to the use of commonplace language. It was said that the language was picturesque and figurative,' but it was quite possible to express what was true in such language. The appeal would bo dismissed.