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“From Grave to Gay”

No caption.

This
Harper’s Weekly cartoon by Thomas Nast derides the insanity
plea of Charles Guiteau, the
assassin
of President James
Garfield, as a travesty of justice.
The artist contrasts the solemn image of the slain president’s
casket (upper-left) with a courtroom scene of Guiteau as a court fool
sitting on Garfield’s grave to the amusement (“gay” means merry)
of his lawyers (left) and the jury (right).
The assassin’s bloody hands grasp a jester’s stick having a
skull where a clown’s head or orb would normally be, as the loose
papers at his feet attest to the deception of his insanity plea—e.g.,
“Any Thing for Notoriety.”
Upset at not being given a
patronage job with the federal government, Guiteau shot President
Garfield on July 2, 1881, at a train station in Washington, D.C.
The president lingered for over ten weeks before dying on
September 19, just days short of his 50th birthday.
Vice President
Chester Arthur
was sworn in as the
nation’s new chief executive, and Guiteau was indicted for murder on
October 14, 1881. At his
arraignment, Guiteau presented his own plea of not guilty based on three
points: (1) his own
insanity; (2) the malpractice of the president’s physicians; and (3)
the D.C. court’s lack of jurisdiction because Garfield’s death
occurred in New Jersey.
Although Guiteau claimed that
God was managing his case, his defense lawyer was his brother-in-law,
George Scoville, an attorney whose 30-years’ experience included only
two criminal cases. At
Scoville’s request, the court appointed a legal assistant, Leigh
Robinson. The prosecution
team was headed by District Attorney George Corkhill and aided by John
Porter, one of the most well respected lawyers in the nation, and Walter
Davidge, another experienced criminal attorney.
After consulting with other
attorneys, Scoville decided to drop the defense that the D.C. court
lacked jurisdiction, and he also decided not to pursue the medical
malpractice aspect, even though co-counsel Robinson thought it was the
best defense. Guiteau’s
claim was that he had been temporarily insane for a month leading up to
the shooting. The first
successful use of the temporary insanity plea was the 1859 case of
Congressman Daniel Sickles, who fatally shot his wife’s lover.
However, the insanity defense in general was controversial and
bitterly debated in the legal, medical, and public arenas, where it was
often scoffed at as the “insanity dodge.”
Scoville wanted to prove that there was hereditary insanity in
the Guiteau family. The lawyer pointed to the fact that an uncle of the accused
had died in an insane asylum in 1829, and he questioned the mental
stability of a female cousin. Guiteau’s
brother, John, was angered by such an approach and unsuccessfully tried
to dissuade Scoville and, when that failed, to replace him with another
lawyer.
The prosecution hired Dr. John
Gray, head of the mental asylum in Utica, New York, and editor of the American
Journal of Insanity, who theorized that if a person who lived a
moral life committed a heinous crime, the possibility of insanity
existed; otherwise, the crime was the natural outcome of leading an
immoral life. In a pretrial
interview conducted by Dr. Gray, Guiteau admitted that he was not insane
under any medical definition of the word, but was in a legal sense
because he had committed “an act without malice.”
During the trial, Gray sat at the prosecutors’ table, where he
advised them on questions of the witnesses.
The trial commenced on November
14, 1881. It was a major
story in the national press, and the courtroom was packed to overflowing
with journalists and curious onlookers.
Because competition for space was so keen, people brought picnic
baskets rather than take a lunch break outside the courtroom.
When Judge Walter Cox refused to allow Guiteau to read an opening
statement, the accused handed it to the press.
The document emphasized medical malpractice, not the gunshots, as
the cause of Garfield’s death, and appealed for competent legal
counsel. Guiteau also wrote
to President Arthur—“My Supposed Friend”—to seek his
intervention “to tell the Prosecuting Attorneys to go very slow.”
Arthur did not respond to Guiteau, but replied later to a formal
set of questions from the defense attorney.
Throughout the trial, Guiteau continually interrupted his
lawyers, the prosecutors, and the judge.
On November 19, a drunken man on horseback shot at Guiteau, who
was being escorted back to jail, piercing his coat but missing the
prisoner.
On November 28, Guiteau took
the stand, testifying for almost a week about the details of his life
from childhood to his decision to assassinate President Garfield.
Prosecutor John Porter then began a rigorous cross-examination of
Guiteau, with the intention of demonstrating that the accused was
immoral and, therefore, not insane.
The defendant admitted to sexual relations with several women,
and to contracting venereal disease.
While on the stand, Guiteau mimicked and mocked the prosecuting
attorney, and interrupted to appeal for money to finance new counsel.
One of the medical experts for
the defense, Dr. James Kiernan, the managing editor of the Chicago
Medical Review, weakened his case when the prosecutor informed the
jury that Kiernan’s claim that 20 percent of the population was insane
meant that at least two of them were bound for the asylum.
When the defense’s leading medical witness, Charles Spitzka of
Columbia Veterinary College, was pointedly asked whether he was a
veterinarian, he sarcastically responded, “In the sense that I treat
asses who ask me stupid questions, I am.”
Closing
arguments began on January 12, 1882, and included Guiteau’s statement
to the jury on January 21, during which he reiterated his claim to have
been temporarily insane when he shot Garfield, and would not, in his
present state of mind, “do it again for $1,000,000.”
The prosecution concluded its three days of closing arguments on
January 26, and the jury retired. Returning
after less than one hour, the foreman read the verdict:
“Guilty as indicted.” Guiteau
leapt to his feet and shouted, “My blood will be upon the heads of
that jury, don’t you forget it … God will avenge this outrage!”
On February 3, defense attorney Scoville requested a retrial,
arguing that a newspaper account of the trial had been found in the jury
room and that he had acquired more evidence of Guiteau’s insanity.
The judge denied the request, and on June 30, 1882, Guiteau was
hanged to death.
Robert C. Kennedy
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