People v. Bremer

SHAW, J.

Defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree and, upon recommendation of the jury, his punishment fixed at imprisonment for life. He appeals from the " judgment and from an order of court denying his motion for. a new trial.

[316]

One of the defenses interposed by defendant was that at the time of the homicide he was suffering from that form of insanity known as

mania a potu.

The homicide occurred at about 6 o’clock in the evening of August 27, 1913. Defendant testified that for years he had indulged in the use of alcoholic liquors; that sometimes he would go for months without drinking and then get intoxicated. He was then asked whether he had ever had' delirium tremens, whether after he had been drinking he was possessed of the belief that he saw snakes or animals; followed by other questions whereby it was sought to show that on one occasion some twelve years before the homicide, and on another occasion one or two years prior thereto, and again on the night before the killing of deceased, he suffered from certain designated hallucinations, delusions, and illusions, such as usually manifest themselves in cases of

mania a potu.

Defendant then made an offer to prove by the witness the facts sought to be elicited by the questions, and that a night or two before the homicide, after defendant had been drinking more or less for a month, he awakened and imagined he saw near his bed a monster or dragon, which vanished, returned, and disappeared. To all of these questions and offer an objection that the same were incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial was sustained. These rulings are assigned as error.

When the existence of general insanity is established it is presumed to continue. This presumption, however, does not apply to that form of the disease known as delirium tremens brought on by one’s own procurement and passing away with the removal of the exciting cause.

(State

v.

Potts,

100 N. C. 457, [6 S. E. 657] ;