The testimony of Pennington at the March trial was a most marvelous performance. To those unfamiliar with high-grade imbecility, it was almost unexplainable. Many thought that he must have been very carefully and elaborately coached; that he had been told just what to say, and had learned his lesson well. Those, however, who know the imbecile understood perfectly what was happening. This eleven-year-old boy was telling a plain, unelaborated tale. He was not intelligent enough to try to escape himself, and so he had nothing to hide and, consequently, got into no confusion. He answered, "Yes," "No," or, "I don't know" with a wisdom and a consistency that was simply amazing, and, as said, could only be explained on the understanding that he was telling the truth. No amount of cross-examination confused him, no sudden coups of the lawyer for the defense could entrap him. For example, when asked with considerable heat on the part of the attorney why he had forgotten a certain point while he remembered very vividly a certain other point, the witness made no attempt to explain; simply remarked that he did not know. In truth, he did not know. Any such psychological matter was as far beyond him as the heavens. Without imagination, without ability to reason out the effect of his answer on his own future, he could simply answer in the plainest kind of "Yes" or "No" as he knew the facts. With these considerations, we pass on to consider the larger and more difficult problem, "Can an imbecile of the mentality of eleven years know the nature and quality of his acts and understand that it is wrong?" CHAPTER V RESPONSIBILITY