Edweard Muybridge is tried for murder. His…

Edweard Muybridge is tried for murder.

His defense attorney pleads insanity due to the severe head injury which Muybridge had suffered in the 1860 stagecoach accident.

At least four longtime acquaintances testify under oath that the accident had dramatically changed Muybridge's personality, from genial and pleasant to unstable and erratic.

During the trial, Muybridge undercuts his own insanity case by indicating that his actions were deliberate and premeditated, but he also shows impassive indifference and uncontrolled explosions of emotion.

The jury dismisses the insanity plea, but acquits the photographer on the grounds of "justifiable homicide", disregarding the judge's instructions.

The episode had interrupted his horse photography studies, but not his relationship with Stanford, who had arranged for his criminal defense.

Today, the court case and transcripts are important to historians and forensic neurologists, because of the sworn testimony from multiple witnesses regarding Muybridge's state of mind and past behavior.

The modern American composer Philip Glass will also find the story fascinating, and compose an opera, The Photographer, with a libretto based in part on court transcripts from the case.

Shortly after his acquittal in early 1875, Muybridge leaves the United States on a previously planned nine-month photography trip to Central America, as a "working exile".