Daniel M'Naghten

Name and spelling There is disagreement over how M'Naghten's name should be spelt (Mc or M' at the beginning, au or a in the middle, a, e, o or u at the end). M'Naghten is favoured in both English and American law reports, although the original trial report used M'Naughton; Bethlem and Broadmoor records use McNaughton and McNaughten. In a 1981 book about the case, Richard Moran, Professor of Criminology at Mount Holyoke College, in Massachusetts, United States, uses the spelling McNaughtan, arguing that this was the family spelling. Until 1981, there was only one known signature: that which M'Naghten affixed to a sworn statement given before the magistrate at Bow Street during his arraignment. This signature, preserved in the Metropolitan Police File at the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane, London, first came to the attention of legal scholars in 1956. According to an authority at the British Museum this signature was spelt McNaughtun. Murder of Edward Drummond In January 1843, M'Naghten was noticed acting suspiciously around Whitehall in London. On the afternoon of 20 January, the Prime Minister's private secretary, civil servant Edward Drummond, was walking towards Downing Street from Charing Cross when M'Naghten approached him from behind, drew a pistol and fired at point-blank range into his back. M'Naghten was overpowered by a police constable before he could fire a second pistol. But complications set in and, possibly because of the surgeons' bleeding and leeching, Drummond died five days later. M'Naghten's trial for the "wilful murder of Mr Drummond" took place at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, Thursday and Friday, 2–3 March 1843, before Chief Justice Tindal, Justice Williams and Justice Coleridge. When asked to plead guilty or not guilty, M'Naghten had said "I was driven to desperation by persecution" and, when pressed, "I am guilty of firing", which was taken as a not guilty plea. His admission papers describe him in the following words: "Imagines the Tories are his enemies, shy and retiring in his manner." Apart from one hunger strike, which ended with force-feeding, M'Naghten's 21 years at Bethlem appear to have been uneventful. Although no regular employment was provided for the men on the criminal wing of Bethlem, they were encouraged to keep themselves occupied with activities such as painting, drawing, knitting, board games, reading and musical instruments, and also did carpentry and decorating for the hospital. ==Significance==

The verdict in M'Naghten's trial provoked an outcry in the press and Parliament. Queen Victoria, who had been the target of three assassination attempts between 1840 and 1842, wrote to the prime minister expressing her concern at the verdict, and the House of Lords revived an ancient right to put questions to judges. Five questions relating to crimes committed by individuals with delusions were put to the 12 judges of the Court of Common Pleas. Chief Justice Tindal delivered the answers of 11 judges (Mr Justice Maule dissented in part) to the House of Lords on 19 June 1843. The answer to one of the questions became enshrined in law as the M'Naghten Rules and stated: To establish a defence on the ground of insanity it must be clearly proved, that, at the time of committing the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it, that he did not know that what he was doing was wrong. The rules dominated the law on criminal responsibility in England and Wales, the United States and many countries throughout the British Commonwealth for over 100 years. In England and Wales, the defence of insanity to which the rules apply was largely superseded, in cases of murder, by the Scottish concept of diminished responsibility following the passage of the Homicide Act 1957. Alternative theories In 1843, a surgeon who was opposed to blood-letting published an anonymous pamphlet claiming that Drummond was killed not by M'Naghten's shot, but by the medical treatment he received afterwards. He said that a gunshot wound of the type sustained by Drummond was not necessarily fatal and criticised Drummond's doctors for their hasty removal of the bullet and repeated blood-lettings. In his 1981 book Knowing Right From Wrong, Richard Moran, professor of sociology at Mount Holyoke College, argues that there are aspects of M'Naghten's case which have never been fully explained. He doubts that the money found on M'Naghten at the time of his arrest – £750, currently worth £ – could have come entirely from his woodturning business, and points out that M'Naghten's political activity and the possibility that there may have been an element of truth to his complaints of persecution were ignored by the court. ==References==