The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-11
Jury Now Considering
 the Case Of Harry 7haD.

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 1 this issue. On the evidence I will try to point out to you that this defen- dants crime was not justifible or ex- cusable and that he should be punished.
 You are not entitled to say that this man Is guilty because the grand ] jury indicted him for murder in the first degree. but you are entitled to consider that on their oaths they said the unexplained evidence justified them in charging him with murder in the first degree
 Mir. Jerome then went briefly into the law covering the various classes into which homicide is divided. de- | scribing each
 | Touches on Dementia Americans.
 '.if you find that this defendant was insane when he killed Stanford White 1t is your duty to say so in your yer dict. If you do not say so, 1t Is be- | cause you believe that his crime was | justifiable Unsuitable does not mean dementia Americana, it means self de- fense
 .,ut when a man sits with his head in his hands and is deliberately shot with pistol held close to him that after the shooting the victims own brother-in-law did not recognize him, l 1t can hardly be called self-defense east of the Mississippi river.
 There can be logically but one of four verdicts returned by you-murder l in the first degree, because there was | not only design, but reconciliation; murder fin the second degree. becaus" there was design but no reconciliation; | manslaughter, because there was neitn- CT design nor reconciliation. but. mere ly the heat of passion; or, lastly, not l guilty because of insanity Gentlemen of the Jury. it is for counsel to appeal to you as they see | their duty To me the duty points only to an appeal upon the evidence in court. Counsel should not inject other things into this case An effort to inflame your passions and to turn your minds from the issue in this trial to anoth- CT case, Is not considered the duty Of counsel on the Atlantic seaboard. Your oath binds you to render your verdict | upon the. evidence and that alone. You must reach your verdict by purely and plainly an intellectual process-as you would dispose of problem in geometry, an equation in algebra or sum in arithmetic. You are to be the sole judge of this issue and you are to judge by the facts. You must take the law as the court gives 1t to you.
 Two Can Use Sympathy.
 If we are going into the proposi- tion of sympathy in this trial. 1t can be played upon both sides Have you thought of the widow in Cambridge and the fatherless boy in Harvard? 1 mention these, men, that you may see that the question of sympathy has .naght to do with the issues here."
 Mir. Jerome next quoted at length from the examination of the twelve jurors, reminding them of their oaths what they promised while being select | ed to serve.
 whether you believe the story told by this girl, whether or not you be- | lieve in the sublime renunciation she made of Thaw's offer of marriage, your sympathies are bound to assert them selves in one form or another. There is here every element to arouse your passion. You cant help iI. But when you retire to consider your verdict. | you must lay 1t aside and guide your | selves solely by intellectual processes. | Mr. Jerome discussed the question of | reasonable doubt. He said 1t was sucn ! doubt as a man would act upon in matters pertaining to his own private affairs and nothing more. Tt must doubt of which you are reasonably or morally certain. A reas- enable doubt is not a mere whim. ''On the subject of insanity. you ju- TOTS were carefully examined" said l MT. Jerome. You swore you would not inject any ideas of your own into your judgment, but take the law as it was laid down to you by the court You swore you would accept only that form of insanity which deprives a man of the knowledge of the nature and qual-' 1 ity of his act or that 1t is wrong-that is, against the current morality of the I community. You did not swear to bring this dementia Americana into the case"
 Each mention of "dementia Ameri- cana" was uttered by MT. Jerome with sarcastic infection.
 "Dementia Americana men," he said, "has no place in your verdict. You swore to take no higher law than the law of your State.
 l Waits Years and Slays.
 "Dementia Americana! What is, the | dementia Americana which waits and glares at it's enemy for three years and | then kills. It waits three long years and grows bitter and then strikes.
 "Dementia Americana-that tiaunts the women for whom it kills through the capitals of Europe for two years as its mistress. Is that the higher law?
 "No, gentlemen, the higher law does not hinge itself under the hem of l womans skirt.
 "Dementia Americana. Is that the law which puts a woman up to tell Of her shame--or misfortune. as the case may be-to all the world in the hope 1t will shield a worthless life from Q l people ueuldHu!
 That Is not the kind of law you swore to accept. and if you do 1t, men, you violate your oaths.
 MT. Jerome took up the evidence of the witnesses for the purpose of direct testimony and with the aid of a large diagram, showed the jury how Thaw moved about the roof garden before and after the shooting. He referred to the testimony of James Clinch Smith. "'Do you remember Truxton Beale and the case of two men and a woman? Thaw asked Smith.
 Perhaps, gentlemen. my learned friend from the Pacific slope remembers | 1t; perhaps he remembers that case of | dementia Americana.
 "Thaw walked deliberately across the | roof garden and In such a manner that his enemy should have no chance to defend himself. then turned suddenly, and, holding the pistol so close to Stan ford Whites head that after he was | dead. MT. Smith, his brother in law. did not know him because of the pow der marks, and fired once, twice, three times."
 MT. Jerome picked up the pistol from the table In front of him and, as he spoke the words, punctuated them by pulling the trigger three times.
 "Deliberately he shot the man who had barred him from clubs, who had once taken from him the woman he loved and threatened to take her away again, and then, my learned opponent