HYPNOTISM AND CRIME.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16426, 14 May 1921, Page 4

HYPNOTISM AND CRIME.

THEORY OF TRUTH IN A TRANCE. MR JUSTICE DARLING SCEPTICAL. The subconscious mind and the question whether a person toils falsehoods when hypnotised were discussed in Louden recently by Justices Darling, Avon- ■uid Sankev when the Court of l Criminal Appeal •dismissed the appeal of Frccl Quarmbv against sentence of death passed at Manchester Assizes. Quarmby killed a woman named Smith at Blackpool, and was hypnotised by a specialist in brain diseases to see what be would say At tbo trial the specialist said be obtained a full story of the crime from Quarmbv in both tbo conscious and the subconscious states, and the stories did not vary. Tho specialist then said ho thought that some chance association of ideas in the accused’s conscious mind had been stored in his subconscious mind for somo weeks. Mr Madden, in supporting Quarmby’s appeal, said the chief ground was that Mr Justice Acton misdirected tho jury by failing to deal fully with the defence ot' impulsive insanity, arid counsol now * asked tho court to define “impulsive insanity ” once and for all. | CHURCHGOER AS MURDERER. | Quarmbv was forty-five and until rc- ) ccntly lived a sheltered life at Stoinj land, near Leeds. lie went to church and Sunday School and had a good ehaiacter. Tbert ho went to Blackpool. ll© fell into the clutches of a woman, said counsel and his mind became unhinged. Mr Justice Darling: So you say that a man who suddenly becomes a profligate is mad? Mr Madden: No. The change of environment from good to bud had an evil effect upon tlrei man’s mind. Speaking of tho experiment in hypnotism w hich tlie specialist had carried out, Mr Justice Darling asked whether the theory was that a man could not tell lies under hypnotism. "If that is so,” ho added, ‘it would l>e a good thing to have an official hypnotist. Then people would not he able to tell lies and we should all be very glad.” (Laughter I *. Mr Malden drew attention to the question of the* ■. übconscious mind milting crime. .Mr Justice Darling admitted" that ho did not understand what the subconscious mind was- He thought it was memory—the sudden recollection of something that happened Mr Madden: That is how we ordinary people summarily dismiss the matter, but learned men say otherwise. lief erring to tho Thaw case (in which Harry Thaw, a Pittsburg millionaire. was tried for the murder of Stanford "White, a famous United States architect), Mr Justice Darling said that when the man was ill tho shadow of tho electric chair liis friends said his subconscious mind was uppermost, but when he escaped the chair they urged his release because they said his conscious mind had regained the mastery. CASE OF THE KX-KAISER. Mr Justice Darling later asked whether a ruler who for years planned a great war could bo called tho victim of unpulsive insanity nil that time. Mr Madden replied that he could not say that. Delivering the judgment, of the court Mr Justice Darling said the crime was committed with premeditation and deliberation. For the defence 'doctors had expressed the opinion that when. Iho crime was committed the man’s subconscious mind, was actuating him. while it was again at. work when he expressed his satisfaction at the crime. Those opinions were founded on a medical theory which appeared to bo unsupported by proof. Pho law of England ha 1 not recognised that theory with its slabs of intelligence, begoing through many forms of semiconsciousness up to the conscious mind, and there was no authority for saying that n judge misdirected a jury when ho told them that tli.o law did not rccoguiso such refinements.