Self-murder is ranked among the higher crimes, being a peculiar species of felony, as implied in the technical term felo de se. To constitute this offence, the party must be in his senses, else it is no crime; but this excuse ought not to be strained to that length to which our coroner’s juries are too apt to carry it,^[88] viz. that the very act of suicide is an evidence of insanity; as if every man who acts contrary to reason, had no reason at all; for the same argument would prove every other criminal non compos, as well as the self-murderer. The law very rationally judges, that every melancholy or hypochondriac fit does not deprive a man of the capacity of discerning right from wrong; and, therefore, if a real lunatic kills himself in a lucid interval, he is felo de se as much as another man. 1 Hales, P. C. 412. 1 Hawk. P. C. c. 27, s. 3.

As to the punishment which human laws inflict on this crime, they can only act upon what the criminal has left behind him,—his reputation and fortune; on the former, by an ignominious burial in the highway, with a stake driven through his body; on the latter, by the forfeiture of all his goods and chattels to the king.

In this as well as all other felonies, the offender must be of the age of discretion, and compos mentis; and therefore an infant killing himself, under the age of discretion, (of which some extraordinary instances have lately been related in the public journals) or a lunatic during his lunacy, cannot be a felo de se. 1 Hawk. P. C. c. 27, s. 1. Crom. 30, a 6, 31; Hales P. C. 28; Dalt. c. 92; 3 Inst. 54.

He who kills another, though at his own desire or command, is a murderer;^[89] and the person killed is not looked upon as a felo de se, in as much as his assent was merely void, being against the law of God and man; 1 Hawk. P. C. c. 27, s. 6; Keilw. 136; Moor 754. But query, as he is the guilty cause of his own death, is he not a felon? for if the question had been of the death of another, his consent to it would have been equally against the laws of God and man; yet if poison were given by his direction or command, even though he were not present, and might have repented, it would be murder, much more then, when he actually assists at the perpetration.

Further, as to what a felo de se shall forfeit, it seems clear that he shall forfeit all chattels, real or personal, which he hath in his own right; and also all chattels real, whereof he is possessed jointly with his wife, or in her right; and also all bonds and other personal things in action, belonging solely to himself; and also all personal things in action, and as some say, entire chattels in possession, to which he was entitled jointly with another, on any account, except that of merchandize. But it is said, that he shall forfeit a moiety only of such joint chattels as may be severed, and nothing at all of what he was possessed of as executor or administrator; 1 Hawk. P. C. c. 27, s. 7, and authorities there. However the blood of a felo de se is not corrupted, nor his lands of inheritance forfeited, nor his wife barred of her dower. 1 Hawk. P. C. c. 27, s. 1; Plowd. Com. 261 b, 262 a; 1 Hales, P. C. 413. The will of a felo de se becomes void as to his personal property, but not as to his real estate. Plowd. 261.

Not any part of the personal estate is vested in the king, before the self-murder is found by some inquisition; and consequently the forfeiture thereof is saved by a pardon of the offence before such finding; 5 Co. R. 110 b; 3 Inst. 54; 1 Saund. 362; 1 Sid. 150, 162. But if there be no such pardon, the whole is forfeited immediately after such inquisition, from the time of the act done, by which the death was caused; and all intermediate alienations and titles are avoided. Plowd. Comm. 260; Hales P. C. 29; 5 Co. R. 110; Finch. 216. All such inquisitions ought to be by the coroner super visum corporis, if the body can be found; and an inquisition so taken cannot, as some say, be traversed. Hale, P. C. 29; 3 Inst. 55; 1 Hawk. P. C. c. 27, s. 9, 10, 11. But see also 3 Mod. 238, 1 Burr. 17.

But if the body cannot be found, so that the coroner, who has authority only super visum corporis, (vide ante. p. 93), cannot proceed, the inquiry may be by Justices of the Peace, (who by their commissions have a general power to inquire of all felonies,) or in the King’s Bench, if the felony were committed in the county where the court sits; and such inquisitions are traversable by the executor, &c. 1 Hawk. P. C. c. 27, s. 12; 3 Inst. 55; Hales P. C. 29; 2 Lev. 141.

Also all inquisitions of this offence being in the nature of indictments, ought particularly and certainly to set forth the circumstances of the fact; and in conclusion add, that the party in such manner murdered himself. 1 Hawk. P. C. c. 27, s. 13; 3 Lev. 140; 3 Mod. 100; 2 Lev. 152. Yet if it be full in substance, the coroner may be served with a rule to amend a defect in form. 1 Sid. 225, 259; 3 Mod. 101; 1 Keb. 907; 1 Hawk. P. C. c. 27, s. 15.

If a person is unduly found felo de se; or on the other hand found to be a lunatic, when in fact he was not so, and therefore ought to have been found felo de se; although a writ of melius inquirendum will not be granted, yet the inquisition is traversable in the King’s Bench. 3 Mod. 238.

By the rubrick in the Common Prayer, before the burial office, (confirmed by Statute 13 and 14, Car. 2, c. 4) persons who have laid violent hands on themselves shall not have that office used at their interment. Yet the priest has no power of enquiry, or even as it would appear of delay, in order to enquiry, when a body (though it be of a notorious suicide) is brought to his church for interment. “The proper judges, whether persons who died by their own hands were out of their senses” (and a fortiori whether they did or not die by their own hands) “are doubtless the coroner’s jury. The minister of the parish hath no authority to be present at viewing the body, or to summon or examine witnesses, and therefore he is neither entitled nor able to judge in the affair; but may well acquiesce in the public determination, without making any private enquiry. Indeed, were he to make one, the opinion which he might form from thence could usually be grounded only on common discourse, and bare assertion. And it cannot be justifiable to act upon these in contradiction to the decision of a jury, after hearing witnesses upon oath. And though there may be reason to suppose that the coroner’s jury are frequently favourable in their judgment in consideration of the circumstances of the deceased’s family with respect to the forfeiture, and their verdict is^[90] in its own nature traversable, yet the burial may not be delayed,^[91] until that matter on trial shall finally be determined. But on acquittal of the crime of self-murder by the coroner’s jury, the body in that case not being demanded by the law, it seemeth that a clergyman may and ought” (we can safely add is compellable) “to admit that body to christian burial.” 1 Burn’s Ecc. Law, tit. Burial.