In Sampson county a mother is on trial for life. She killed a man—an elderly man—who was the alleged author of the ruin of her 13-year-old daughter. The defense is brainstorm—that the mother was temporarily crazed by the revelation and was mentally irresponsible when she killed the man. Claims that one is unbalanced at the time of the commission of a crime is always viewed with suspicion for obvious reasons. But it will be readily admitted that the Sampson county mother had cause not only to deprive her of reason temporarily but for all the time. If ever there was a cause for brainstorm—for the maddening fury that dethrones reason—it is when a parent receives a shock as came to the Sampson county mother. It is intimated that the victim of the maddened mother’s fury was not the real criminal; that an innocent man was named to shield the guilty. That is sometimes done and there’s the danger when the outraged parent goes out to avenge the wrong. But in such cases, it can be easily understood how reason may be dethroned for the time.
From The Statesville Landmark, as reprinted on the front page of the Mount Airy News, Aug. 25, 1921
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