RT Journal
A1 Heald GH
T1 THe responsibility of the mentally subnormal
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1909
FD November 6
VO LIII
IS 19
SP 1579
OP 1579
DO 10.1001/jama.1909.02550190055013
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1909.02550190055013
AB To the Editor: 
    —Your editorial on the above subject (Oct. 23, 1909, liii, 1403) is sound. No man who has committed a murder and who has been judged irresponsible may safely be entrusted with liberty. With the knowledge that his past record of insanity renders him immune to punishment, he has little to deter him from a repetition of his antisocial act; and an act once successfully committed is, under such circumstances, a constant invitation to its repetition.Whether the state should feel obliged to support at its expense those who are a constant menace to others and who cannot possibly be useful citizens, I cannot say; there might be a more summary way of dealing with them; but if there be no death penalty certainly there should be no less than a life sentence for them.The man with a mental make-up which sets at naught the right of