The Imbecile Defense

On March 27, 1914, schoolteacher Lida Beecher left her boarding house in upstate New York to mail a letter but never returned home. When her body was found the next morning, it led to the arrest of one of her teenage students. The trial of Jean Gianini was a national sensation, raising questions about how to punish those of low intelligence who commit murder-- questions that our legal system still wrestles with today.