The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-13

| ming up address to the jury appealed almost directly to the "unwritten law" or "Dementia Americana as he termed 1t.
 was not in court when the jury was dis l charged. 1
 Tonight Clifford W. Hartridge, the at torney of record and warm personal | friend of Thaw, gave the following state 1 ment to the Associated Press MT. Thaw has already expressed him l self as desirous of trial under and in l accordance with the laws of the state 1 of New York. I can add nothing to that except to say that firmly agree with
 him and hope that we shall have a new | trial speedily and that the next time l it will not be necessary for the presiding
 judge to have to charge the jury that
 we are living in civilized community"
 Work of the Jury.
 Attorneys Daniel OReilly, Clifford w. l Hartridge A. Russell Peabody and John B. Gleason acted for Thaw today. It was | said that MT. OReilly would have lead | ing part in the future conduct of affairs | A story of the proceedings in the jury I room as they were learned tonight Tar | outranked in interest these brief court proceedings which brought the famous 1 trial to an end. It developed that the l jury had considered everything connected | with the case except the ''unwritten law" /, Easing their Judgment entirely upon the 1 evidence they voted either for or against
 murder in the first degree when they
 cast their first ballots The first vote 1 was eight to four in favor of conviction. | Then the jury tried to reach common ground upon a verdict of manslaughter | in the first degree, the punishment for which ranges to a maximum of twenty years imprisonment. The men in favor of acquittal-largely on the ground of l insanity, it is said-would not change their ballots and in the end won over to their side one of the eight who favored conviction. During the nearly forty eight hours of deliberation only eight ballots were cast. The jury spent two
 nights dozng in their chairs. The en- 1 tire story of what transpired in the jury
 room from the time the men retired at 5:17 o'clock Wednesday until the final
 ballot taken just before the jury reported it's disagreement in court was as fol- lows:
 History of BalIoting. | For conviction of murder in the first degree: Deming B. Smith, foreman: George P Bugo Pfaff, Charles H. Fecke, Harry C. Brearley, Charles D. Newton. Joseph B. Bolton and Bernard Gerst- man.
 l For acquittal on the ground of insanity: | oscar A. Pink, Henry c. Harney. Nal 1 colm S. Fraser. Wilbur F. Steel and John S. Dennee.
 Juror Harney said:
 About ten minutes after we reached the fury room we took the first ballot and | it resulted in a vote of eight for convic- tion of murder in the first degree and four for absolute acquittal
 "The men who voted for conviction were: Smith, foreman; Pfaff. Fecke. Brearley, Dennee, Bolton, Newton and Gerstman The men who voted to set Thaw free were Pink, Harney, Fraser and Steel
 Thirty minutes elapsed before the sec ond ballot was taken and then the votes remained unchanged. A third ballot was taken at 9:5 D. m. Wednesday and still there was no change. Thereafter there
 was a considerable discussion but most
 of the night hours were spent in sleep, and no ballot was taken until 4:30 Thurs day afternoon.
 This was several hours after we had
 asked the court for reading of testi-
 mony by eye witnesses of the tragedy. The fourth ballot marked one change in the vote. Four of the jurors still held out for an acquittal, but of the rest Ber- nard Gerstman, the twelfth juror, changed his vote from murder in the first degree to that of manslaughter in the first degree About two hours later, fifth ballot was taken and this showed decided change on the part of the jurors who voted for conviction. It also proved that the effort of the four jurors who voted for an acquittal had not been alto gether in vain. for they succeeded in