Insanity Plea/Test
The Old Native American Tribal Court System
This story will describe how the old Native American tribes of the North East United States would have handled the issue of Capital Punishment for a convicted person that wishes to escape punishment because of temporary/permanent insanity.
The village is quiet until a child is discovered missing one misty cool morning. The mothers wailing despair awakens the other lodges. The people ask the usual question and try to find the best location to begin a search. As it turns out the child had misinformed his parents about his location for the evening. He was not where he had said he would be and is now missing. Nobody can recall seeing the boy. Weeks of searching pass. War parties become exhausted and run out of places to search. The boy never returns to the village and stories are invented about what happened to him to ease the relatives and scare other children from running away.
Months later it happens again. This time 2 boys are missing and cannot be found. Accusations against neighbor tribes fly with wild abandon. Wars are started and called off faster than the hummingbird. Neighbors are falsely accused. Monsters and Devils are invented to take blame. Ceremonies are held. Witches are invented and accused. The village turns upon itself.
"Where are the children going?" every one asks.
A well-known member of the tribe whom is respected as a person suddenly becomes the suspect in the missing children case. The warriors search the lodge and the member's known places of solace. Evidence belonging to one of the children is found in one of these places. The evidence is identified by the family of the missing child.
Immediately the person is arrested and a court is convened. More evidence is found in the most gruesome form. The bones of some of the missing children are found and linked to the suspect person whom now has the grapevine reputation as a devil. A lynch mob ensues and has to be restrained by the warrior society; whom allows the occasional mob person to break the line and deliver a blow to the suspect.
The suspect has a trial and pleads Guilty to murder, rape, and cannibalism (ewwwwww).
The tribe council cannot recall a single case of cannibalism among them or neighbor tribes and a dilemma is produced. The tribe wonders if the accused is crazy/sick or a devil/possessed of non-human origin.
The Chief must decide the punishment of the accused that has plead guilty. The accused says he is sick and asks for mercy. The families of the victims plot his torture and death.
The Chief says "We are the real people of the earth and we do not commit murder...we do not have the death penalty. We do not kill sick people for making mistakes. The only time that we can kill people is in self-defense or an act of war. What have you done? What are you? We cannot decide if you are sick and did not know what you were doing because you have shown remorse and asked for forgiveness to escape punishment. You value your own life to ask this...But you do not value the life of children that you killed.
Since no one can decide if the accused is insane or was insane or did it on purpose, or shows true remorse...the Chief devises an insanity test based upon the actions of the accused.
Chief says, " You have plead guilty by reason of insanity and ask for forgiveness...you are now forced to comply to this insanity test and based upon your action the truth will be revealed to all of us and to your self."
" A. Your are ultimate insane. You will be forgiven of all crimes committed placed in our welfare system and fed and taken care of as an infant or stray lame animal that belongs to the tribe. Take this knife and cut off you hands and feet and eat them to prove you can be insane in the same manner that you were to the children. We will give you medicine afterward and you will live."
OR
"B. You have ultimate true remorse and are sane. You only ask for forgiveness but you cannot live as a sane person with what you have done. Take this knife and kill yourself now and be forgiven as a person that made a terrible mistake and has no value for life not even his own." (If the accused sincerely attempts this he could be stopped and could be declared insane or forgiven if the old mothers feel it in their heart to spare his life)
OR
"C. You have ultimate defiance. You do not believe the laws of our tribe or village. You are sane and mightier than us and your ways are proper and our ways are criminal. You declare war on our own nation by forming your own nation of which you are the only member and you enforce your laws upon our children without our knowledge or consent. Call your warriors now and fight for what you believe is right. If you win we will be gone and can bother you no more. You and your nation will die in an act of war that you started as you are only one."
Chief says you will choose now A B or C. If you refuse to choose that is defiance and you get automatic C.
The Accused faced with this ultimate test will either go insane again or his true heart will be revealed.
The accused chooses B. He is given the knife. He is unable to kill himself and values human life and is sane. His defiance to commit suicide changes his plea to C.
The Chief declares that the accused is a sane man and a stranger whom has come from another nation with different laws and declared war upon the village. The Chief declares war on the accused man and his hidden nation. The accused is killed instantly by the warrior society in a legal act of war/self defense.
Case closed.