Trial of Patrick Eugene Prendergast

The trial of Patrick Eugene Prendergast was held in December 1893 in the Cook County Criminal Court. Prendergast was tried on the charge of murder in the first degree for his actions in having Carter Harrison III (mayor of Chicago) assassinated. Prendergast had been motivated to assassinate Harrison by a delusion: Prendergast held that he was entitled to be appointed the city's corporation counsel (a role which he held no qualification for), and had been wrongfully deprived by Harrison of such an appointment. The central question in dispute during the trial was the state of Prendergast's sanity as it related to the commission of Harrison's killing. Prendergast's defense attorneys entered a plea in his defense that he was not guilty by reason of insanity. They did not contest that Prendergast had killed Harrison, instead offering the defense that he had done so while under the control of an insanity that legally rendered him non-culpable for the murder. Prosecutors, including Jacob J. Kern (the Cook County state's attorney) and lead prosecutor A. S. Trude, argued that Prendergast had been sane and was culpable of murdering Harrison. The trial was presided by Judge Theodore Brentano of the Superior Court of Cook County. The jury delivered a verdict finding Prendergast guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and sentenced him to death by hanging.

Harrison's assassination had been a major news item, and the trial attracted great attention. Public sentiment was unsympathetic towards Prendergast, and contemporary discourse widely disbelieved the argument that had been made in his defense. United States news media and leading figures in its politics and business lauded Prendergast's conviction and sentencing. The popular view expressed was that his execution would serve as an example to deter other "cranks" from carrying out similar acts of violence against government officials. In contrast to contemporary discourse on the trial, modern retrospectives often believe Prendergast to have been insane, and the jury to have been incorrect in its judgement that he was not.

After he was sentenced to be executed, attorneys Clarence Darrow, James S. Harlan, and Stephen S. Gregory represented Prendergast in efforts to appeal this sentence. A petition was granted for an inquiry to determine the current state of Prendergast's sanity. At the time, Illinois had a law which forbade the state from carrying out the execution of individuals currently suffering from insanity. This statute protected those that had become insane subsequent to their commission of crime from being executed until such a time that they were determined to be rid of their insanity. The jury in this inquiry found Prendergast to be currently sane, and he was executed by hanging on July 13, 1894.