The Evening Star FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1929. THE BRAUMAN VERDICT.

Evening Star, Issue 20321, 1 November 1929, Page 8

The Evening Star FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1929. THE BRAUMAN VERDICT.

The jury in the Brauman trial had the option of returning one of three verdicts—murder, manslaughter, or acquittal on the ground of insanity. This is frequently the position in murder trials. But in this case the middle issue was negligible. To reduce murder to manslaughter, said His Honour in his summing up, there must be the heat of passion caused by a sudden provocation. The judge went on to point out that there was an entire absence of evidence of any sudden provocation ; in fact, the circumstances immediately preceding the fatal act showed it to be entirely unprovoked. Counsel for the defence at an earlier stage had emphasised the aspect that the whole gist of the evidence was on the question of intent. The defence admitted freely that the act had long been premeditated. Brauman, said Mr White, “had not concealed his intention of committing murder; in fact, he had broadcast his intention to kill this woman” (his wife). Obviously, therefore, the whole defence was based on the question of Brauman’s sanity or otherwise. On this point medical evidence was called. The overwhelming weight of it was that Brauman realised the nature and - ”nlity of the act he was committing. This constitutes the legal definition of sanity in respect of Inin.-. ' ; no' l , as. f’ l '- ' • said in chary ng t.';-' i ■, w 1 "t ! ev ! "’' ti decide wrs v. ■ er r u w. • n sane in a i gal sense, 'i ■ jury, by bringing in a verd.ct of guilty of murder, found that he was sane in a legal sense; but they added as strong a recommendation to mercy as possible “ on the grounds of the medical evi-

donee regarding the prisoner’s mental abnormality.” The burden of proof in respect of a crime rests on the prosecution; the burden of proof of insanity as an excuse for a crime rests on the defence. .The jury, in effect, found that the defence had in this case not sustained the burden of proof, as the law requires it to be proved. But the jury, by their strong recommendation to mercy, virtually recorded an opinion that the law’s definition of insanity is too narrow. Our own inference from the necessarily brief verdict and recommendation is that the jury was convinced that Brauman was under no delusion as to what he was doing when ho killed his wife, but that ho did suffer from delusions as to his justification for such an extreme act. In a sense such a conclusion might bo drawn from the evidence of the doctor subpoenaed by the defence aud from some of the evidence of the four other doctors brought by tho Crown in rebuttal That is largely a matter of opinion. There will, however, probably bo more unanimity about Brauman’s mental condition in one particular respect—vis., that of his domestic affairs. Only because of its general application do wo deem it our duty to pursue . is matter a little further. What was the motive behind the act? The judge said that the evidence disclosed that the married life of tho Braumans had not been happy—“ it was mostly what might be described as ‘ bedroom unhappiness.’ ” Mrs Brauman found life •insupportable from this i -se, and on her initiative the pair separated. Brauman brooded, and ultimately he found life insupportable to himself—apparently the more so because, separated from him, his wife seemed to find happiness in work and in the supervision of tho children.

To some minds tho discovery of dispensability constitutes a torment. This has been recognised ever since the world began, and tho term applied to that condition of mind is jealousy. But it is surely a stretching of the term to describe so common a phase as mental abnormality. Because there are some people so constituted that they will nurse jealousy instead of striving to subduo it is no reason why tho legal definition of insanity should bo extended to embrace jealousy. The criminal records, from as far back as they extend to the present, bristle with homicides attributable to jealousy, despite tho inflexible attitude of the law in :espcct of such a cause being considered as valid. Should there be any such relaxation in the legal definition of insanity, danger must arise from the lowering of the protection of society against crimes of violence with so-called revenge as a motive.