Missouri V. Smith Analysis

The Argument and Conclusion of Mr. Smith’s Sanity

Questioning a person’s sanity after the commitment of an inhumanely gruesome crime is completely natural, but it is something that we must do. It is hard to believe that someone sound of mind could murder, dismember, and hide the corpse of a loved man- but this is exactly what has happened in the case of Missouri v. Smith. In summary, here is the case: Mr. Johnson has been murdered by Mr. Smith. The murder was premeditated, meaning Smith planned it. The motivation, Smith says, is that Johnson had an "evil eye" which caused the Smith stress and agony. Therefore, Smith decided that he must murder the old man in order to rid himself of the evil eye. Every night for seven nights, at around midnight, Smith opened Johnson's door and looked inside, specifically at the his eye. Finally, on the eighth
Smith shows us that he can tell right from wrong. Like a scared child who broke a lamp, Smith hides what he did and proceeds to lie about it. He knows what he did is wrong, and that people will not like it if they find out. “I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye---not even his---could have detected anything wrong.” (pg. 59). In “Can You Fake Mental Illness?” by Douglas Starr, he states “If the suspect has hidden the weapon, washed off his fingerprints, or taken other steps to elude the police, it’s a sign of clear thinking—not mental illness.” This is exactly what Mr. Smith has done. He even subconsciously tries to put another layer between the officers and his broken lamp by putting his chair on top of the remains of of Mr. Johnson on page 60. Lying to the police shows that Smith knows that he cannot get caught, he knows that there is a crime to catch. He knows what he did was wrong, so he lies about it on page 60; “My manner had convinced them… but, ere long, I felt myself getting pale and wished them gone.” This is the beginning of Mr. Smith’s grief-induced panic