People v. Wreden

Sharpstein, J.:

The appellant was tried on a charge of murder, and convicted of manslaughter. The transcript is quite voluminous, and the number of exceptions unusually large. We shall confine our attention to the exceptions which we think were well taken.

Insanity was very much relied upon as a defense, and the Court seems to have labored under the impression, that a witness who was not an expert should not be permitted to state his opinion upon the question of the sanity of the accused. One Williams, a witness for the defense, testified that he had known the accused intimately for the period…