A Forger's Mind Was Ruined by Opium, Cocaine and Cigarettes
Prosecuting Attorney James F. Miller told a Seattle court that H. Miller, an electrician addicted for a decade, was not responsible for passing a forged order.
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On the application of Prosecuting Attorney James F. Miller, Judge Osborne yesterday took up the case of the State of Washington against H. Miller, the opium fiend, who early last spring duped various persons into paying checks he had forged. He was arrested on a charge of presenting to the Boston Clothing Company an order for money purporting to have been signed by the Pacific National Company. The order was honored; on presentation to the supposed maker, it was found to be forged.
The prosecuting attorney stated that he had carefully investigated Miller's case and found that for the past ten years he had been addicted to the excessive and unnatural use of opium, cocaine and cigarettes; that his mental powers had been impaired to such an extent that he was not responsible for his acts. For months prior to Miller's arrival in this city he had been incarcerated in an inebriate house in San Francisco, but when released he immediately returned to his former habits and became a menace to his friends and relatives, who finally deported him from San Francisco so that he might avoid his evil associates. Miller, an electrician, came to the Sound and obtained work at his trade in Tacoma, where one day, while doing some work, he fell from a ladder and sustained injuries from which he never fully recovered.
The prosecuting attorney stated that at the time the order in question was presented, the defendant was in such a condition mentally that he was not responsible for his actions. Mr. Miller further stated that as there were so many important witnesses in the case who knew Miller's mental condition, it would have been useless to hope for a verdict of guilty. The application was for the forger's discharge.
“For the past ten years he had been addicted to the excessive and unnatural use of opium, cocaine and cigarettes; his mental powers had been impaired to such an extent that he was not responsible for his acts.”
In 1891, addiction was already being argued in court as a cause of impaired responsibility, though the era's language mixed sympathy with contempt. Seattle and Tacoma still wrestle with how the criminal justice system should respond to addiction and mental illness, and whether treatment or punishment is the point.
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