Who drafted the Act which lead to the imprisonment and deaths of Joseph and Michael Hofer?
Joseph and Michael Hofer Joseph and Michael Hofer, Hutterite brothers from South Dakota, were conscientious objectors to the military draft established by the Selective Service Act of 1917. They and two other men from their Hutterite colony were court-martialed and sentenced to twenty years in Alcatraz for refusal to comply with orders. Joseph and Michael died after transfer to the prison at Fort Leavenworth. Ultimately these events contributed to the emigration of Hutterites to Canada in 1918 and in subsequent years.
State v. Crenshaw State v. Crenshaw, 98 Wash. 2d 789, 659 P.2d 488 (1983), is a criminal case interpreting the relationship of the insanity defense to a deific decree. The Supreme Court of Washington carved out the deific exception from the standard set forth in "People v. Schmidt" (1915), that a person can be found not guilty by reason of insanity even if they knew their act was morally wrong by the standards of society and wrong under the law, if their mental disorder was a delusion that God commanded their act. A mother insanely killed her child in the delusional belief that she was obeying God's command. It was found that "it would be unrealistic to hold her responsible for the crime, since her free will has been subsumed by her belief in the deific decree.