Kearney v. State

In this case the appellant, Henry Bell Kearney, was convicted of assault and battery with intent to kill and murder his wife’s niece, Esther Hill, and sentenced to serve a term of ten years in the state penitentiary.

The defense relied on was that the defendant’s mind was so deranged at the time of the shooting that he was mentally incapable of knowing right from wrong. The sheriff had the defendant examined by a physician within an hour after the shooting, and this physician was of the opinion that he was then in a state of paranoia, and that because of this mental derangement the defendant…