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FRAGMENTS OF A PRISONER'S DIARY
It was so obviously a case of crime committed under compulsion by an utterly helpless and hopeless victim of social conditions, that even the legalistic bias of the judge was overwhelmed by pity.
In her statement during the trial, the woman declared that she had killed the child, not for the sake of herself, but to spare the child the pain of dying of starvation eventually. Had she not acted as she did reluctantly, she would be thrown out in a hostile world, with absolutely no means of subsistence except charity from the merciful, which could not be expected by a branded sinner. Despair overwhelmed maternal instinct. Or, was not the crime really suicide of maternal instinct at bay? At any rate, the punished criminal" was certainly not responsible for the crime. The responsibility cannot be laid at the door of any single individual or of a few individuals. It was a collective responsibility, as the responsibility for practically all crimes is.
66
C
An incident reported in the press about the same time throws light on the fact (though few saw the light) that similar sort of crime is committed also by higher-class people, supposed to be morally more elevated, but who usually escape public detection and legal punishment thanks to their advantageous social position. A smashed-up carcass of a new-born babe, well wrapped-up in good
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