There will be rather widespread astonishment that Dr. J.W. Peacock, the Lexington physician who shot down the chief of police of that town without any provocation, should have been adjudged by the jury that tried him for his life to be insane and, therefore, irresponsible for his act. There was never any uncertainty as to the plea which would be entered in his behalf. The only possible chance he seemed to have for his life was on the ground of insanity and yet, Dr. Peacock’s sanity had not been questioned before by his fellow-citizens and such able and fair-minded men as Dr. Kistler of the Thomasville orphanage and Dr. Archibald Johnson, the popular editor of Charity and Children, said that they had frequently talked with the defendant and in their judgement, there was nothing wrong with him before the killing.
These men and others so testified at the trial. Against their evidence was written the evidence of three of the most expert alienists in North Carolina and Virginia and every one of these men swore that, according as they judge men to be sane or insane, Dr. Peacock was not sane at the time he shot and killed the chief of police.
It is dead easy to criticize the courts and laugh at them and to berate the juries which turn men such as Dr. Peacock loose, but what is a jury to do when it is confronted with the issue of deciding whether a man is guilty of murder or not when three expert alienists tell the court that he was a crazy man when he committed the deed. The State has no business condemning a crazy man. It is not its function to exact “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” from those who are mentally irresponsible for their acts. It is rather the function of the State under such premises to look with pitying eye upon citizens of such irresponsibility and instead of electrocuting them, actually tend them and try to bring them back to themselves.
That was the issue which the jury had to face and its verdict turned upon that axis. The court charged, as it was obligated to charge, that if the jury was convinced that the defendant was insane at the time of the killing, it would be the duty of the jurymen to absolve him from guilt. The State put on the stand many civilian witnesses who knew Dr. Peacock and they said he was not crazy, but the defense introduced three men who deal entirely with insane subjects and their evidence was to the effect that the defendant was insane. Under such circumstances it is difficult to attach any criticism to the jury for not putting Dr. Peacock in the electric chair.
There is only this further to be said in connection with a case that is being so uniformly discussed over the State. To keep the verdict from becoming a mockery, it is the State’s business to commit. Dr. Peacock to the insane asylum and to keep him there so long as the alienists contend that he is still a paranoiac. We don’t know how long that will be, but it should be long enough to give proper answer to those who are disposed to believe that in a few months Dr. Peacock will be back in Lexington or somewhere else, pursuing the even tenor of his way.
From the editorial page of The Charlotte News, June 13, 1921
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