Abstract

Insanity. REAL363 CASE.INSANITY.-THEof this case wifi be remembered by Peter C. Real, a man of bad character,many of our was shot inNew York, last June, and fatally wounded, by a woman, who claimed to be his wife This woman, named Mary Stewart, #{248}r, she called as herself, Mary C. Real, was indicted for the crime, and tried, in the month of October last, before the Hon. George G. Barnard, of the Supreme Court. The defence, which was conducted by Mr. Edwin James, as senior counsel, was placed upon the ground that the accused was the wife of Real, had been grossly ill-treated by him for many years, and that in consequence of such ill treatment and neglect her mind became so unsettled and diaorganized as to render her at times (while reflecting on her imagined wrongs) wholly irresponsible, or, in other words, insane, and that, in that condition, she committed the homicide. In support of his position, some evidence was given of a secret marriage between Real and the accused, and it was proved that for some years she had, from time to time, bitterly reproached him for his infidelity to’wards her, and exhibited extravagant grief at his