Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-13

1T can be distinctly stated that the
jury walked to its room with a deeply
solemn sense of the responsibility to rem
der careful, deliberate fair-minded and
thoroughly conscientious verdict. By
unanimous impulse the first action was to
gather about the long table in the center
of the room and stand with bowed heads
while an opening prayer was made. Then.
with the foreman in his chair at the head
of the table and the other jurors in the
places to which they were accustomed at
mealtimes, parliamentary rules were
adopted and the formal discussion was I'M
der way.
Upon motion. an initial ballot was
taken preceding all argument. This bal
lot occurred at $50, ten minutes after the
jury entered the room, and revealed SIX
votes for conviction of murder in the first
degree two votes for mansliuShter IN
upon the ground of insanity. The two
mansaughter ballots were Immediately,
changed to murder in the first degree, the
respective jurors explaining that they had
so voted not from any doubt of the com
pleteness of the peoples case as charged
in the Indictment but to suggest pos
sible basis for an ultimate compromise
ballot. should such ultimately prove TO De
necessary. The lineup then stood eight
for murder in the first degree to four for
acquttal upon the ground of insanity.
The argument sthen commenced with the
seriousness and almost tie formal1ty or
>
generally respected the rights of the
speaker to an uninterrupted privilege OF
address after recognition by Mr.. smith.
Thus was secured long early freedom from
any wrangling.
Ignored Unwritten Law.
Zone of the first things which developed
was the completeness with which the COW
ert. but perfectly obvious, defense OF I'M
written law so conspicuous in Mr.. Delmas
address and in his case In chief. was ls-
nored The defense of legal insanity was
the only thing which was considered TO ne
properly competent for discussion. The ad-
dresses made were earnest, forceful and,
in many cases. rising TO degree OF I'M
FASHIONED oratory. They were also long
and continually referred to supporting
points of evidence recollected by the
speakers. Attention was almost immediate
~ fixed upon the events Of the fateful June
evening from which all of the subsequent
events have grown, and throughout .tne
succeeding two days probably no words
were quite so frequently spoken as these:
Did he know the nature and quality of the
act he was doing, and did he know that 1t
was wrong? Opinions differed-nay, more,
opinions earnestly differed. and each man
was so conscientouSly sure of the correct
ness of his deductions that to each 1t
seemed only a question of fully stating ms
viewpoint to secure unanimous agreement.
Unhappily this hope was destined to re-
cede as the long hours wore themselves
and to be finally extinguished to an &C
companying disappointment almost TOO deep
for words 1t is hard to see how any jury,
under any circumstances. could have striv-
en- more earnestly to avoid such unfortu-
nate termination.
. Forgot Meal Hours.
"In the midst of an animated debate,
which was being conducted with such keen
interest that no note had been had of the
d;ob Of door
hushed all voices, while the opening dis
covered Capt. Lynch, who asked the party
to assemble for trip up town to dinner
at the Broadway Central. Despite the
lateness of the hour-after 4 oclock-and
the continuous effort for the day, the men
We're not a little disappointed at the en-
forced interruption. Soon after 9 O'Clock
they were back again in their places, and
third ballot, taken before TO- evidenced
no change in alignment. In due course
the formal debate broke up naturally into
individual arguments between pairs or
among small groups scattered about the
room as they strove earnestly with each
other. The hope in the minds of all was
for some early agreement. and efforts of
the Jealous nature were put forth. Those
contending for conviction acted upon alb
solutely impersonal grounds. There was
not the slightest suggestion of the spirit
of bloodthirstiness in anything that was
said Rather the feeling was one of all
proper sympathy for the defendant and the
members of his family.
Thaw Not Normal.
1T was freely admitted by some of the
number that Thaw was hardly to be con-
sdered an absolutely normal man by their
avn standards. He impressed some of
marked degenerate type, and some thought
that he had justified himself in the shoot
ing. But, as was repeatedly stated, the
verdict must not be reached upon any
question of Harry X. Thaw's own moral
Standards but upon his knowledge of the
law of the state as it related to the taking
of human life. In other words again and
again was it quered in the familiar for
mu!a. Was he laboring under such form of
mental unsoundneSS as not to know the
nature and quality of the act he was doing
and not to know that he did wrong" AL
most every speaker for conviction stated
with solemn earnestness that he had men
tally struggled against his formed cOnVic-
tons as the evidence had piled up, and
even now would thank any one who could
point out to him conscientious reasons for
d change of opinion.
Two Sleepless Nights.
by a process of elimination it was en-
deavored in some instances to discover all
possible elements of agreement in order to
locaize the points of dispute. 1t was found
that not few of these rested upon differ
ences in recollection of certain points of
evidence. AS the night Wore away 1t be-
came increasingly apparent that little prog
ress was being made, and that little could
be made until the opening of court made it
possible to secure enlightenment.
The vigor of discussion finally lapsed
into a lul, broken now and again by
sporadic outbreaks and various exhausted
Jurors curled up from time to time in
the cramped confines of their chairs, or
upon the hard table, in the attempt to
get a little sleep. Some succeeded meas
urably, but some had had no sleep what
ever when the early morning light began
to show in the Walker street windows.
The coming of the morning awakened anew
the spirit of argument, but by Z o'clock,
the time of starting out for breakfast, it
was pretty generally agreed that the next
step must be the securing of additional
information from the court. The streets
were astir with the early morning workers
when the party went again TO the hotel.
Upon return there were so many different
exhibits and points of testimony desired
that a rather formidable list was sent in to
Justice Fitzgerald, and shortly thereafter
the whole party were ushered into their
accustomed jury-box seats, where they
faced an eXpectant roomful.
The defendant and wife were obviously
cheerful. although they gazed very ear
nestly at the faces of the jurymen, and
these in turn attempted to betray no eX-
preston which would indicate their no