The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-04-13
EXTENDED OVER
ATLANTIC OCEAN
English People at First Greatly
Interested in the Trial of
Harry K. ThaW.
BARRISTERS ALSO EXCITED
AMERICAN WAYS PROVED TOO
MUCH FOR THEM.

! London. April 12-Interest in the trial
/ of Harry Thaw for the murder of
/ Stanford White which at first was in
/ tense. here, Jagged during the latter
stages of the proceedings. However,
( the uneNDe ctedly prolonged delibera-
I TONS of the jury and the novelty for
! the British public of the circumstances
surrounding the final scenes raised
! curiosity here to a fever point to learn
what the outcome of the strange case
would be. Within few minutes of the
receipt of the cable dispatch announc-
ing that the jury had been. discharged
the streets OF London. i'm spite of the
/ lateness of the hour. echoed with the
/ shouts Of the neWsbOys. The news
papers Were bought up eagerly, and the
! people everywhere discussed with un-
usual Gvidity the likelihood of d fresh
trial.
English Criticism.
The chief criticisms heard turned
upon the comparative leniency of
American opinion toward homicides
and what EnEliShmen consider a lack
/ of dignity and IN athOd in the proceed
I ings of the courts. 1t has been the
| boast of Englishmen that hanging in
variably followed killing here. but
Home Secretary Gladstoue's lenieucy
3
man who shot and killed William
Whitley last January, and the unex-
pected wave Of Sentimentdlism which
demanded it, led 90 the discussion as to
whether the swift and stern processes
of British law will not i'm the future (
more frequently bend before public
opinion.
Only two Americans are practiciug at
the British bar as barristerS. In the
D inner " no Hvi no
tiers have their offices, where many of
them take their meals in common and
live a sort of CLUB life, the Thaw trial
has excited moro interest and discus
sion than any legal event in America
for many years. and than most i'm
pCrtant trials in England. The Ameri- /
can baristers have been called upon 7
to do much explaining to their British
brethren Of what appeared to the latter 1
! to be the peculiar methods of Ameri- /
can courts.
Could Not Follow the Case.
Newton Crane, who has been a mem /
/ Dor of the inner temple fer many years /
and who is president of the American /
society, said English barristers at first I
took Keen interest IN the case. par /
ucularly as To the suggested pleas of 4
emotional insanity and the 'unWTittcn 4
law but recently had almost given
no the attempt to understand the pro-
cedure Of the court This was in great 1
contrast TO the course followed here.
In the first place there was the
length of time between the arrest and
trial In England in a similar case
for instance. that Of Rdyner for the
murder of Whitely-the trial would al .
most invariably occur within a month /
or two of the crime, and would be for 4
gotten before a man would be arraigned .
in America. The greatest contrast,
however, as noted by English lawyers. I
was the selection OF jurors. a work
which occupied so much time in Amer
lea and so short a time here. The Eng
lishman could not conceive of a COM
petent jury being secured when each
talesman had to undergo such an ex-
animation as did the American jurors I
British Procedure.
In the court procedure, too, there
were many instances that aroused the
curiosity of English members of the
bar. One that particularly struck them
was the standing aside of a witness to
allow document upon which he was
to be examined, to be proved. as was
done TO Mrs. ThdW to allow the defense
to prove Thaw's will. Here a judge
would take the statement of a lawyer
that he was able to prove the document
ruption of the witness evidence This
and the fact that-a lawyer had to in
trOduce much otherwise unnecessary
evidence for use in case of an appeal.
was blamed by English lawyers for
the dragging of the case, which they
believed in England, where there was
no criminal appeal, would have been
finished within week at the most.
Jury System Criticised.
J. Arthur CARAT also has spent
many half hours since the case opened
explaining to his legal friends the
of the moves of the prosecu-
ton and defense. He has found the
chief criticism leveled at the jury sys-
TEN and the apparent lack to English
men of decOTum in the conduct of the
case. To English lawyers, it is to be
explained, he said, that on account of
the right of appeal in criminal cases.
the judge could not, as would be done
here, stop the long cross-eXamination
of witnesses and the Introduction of
evidence which had no direct bearing
on the crime. Here the judges insist
that lawyers shall hold closely to the
facts, to himself being the duty of de-
Gliding whether the evidence is ma
terial without suggestion from counsel,
and charging the jury as to the law.
According TO Mr. Barrett, the con-
sensus of legal opinion in London is
that the jury would have found Thaw
guilty of murder with a strong recon-
mendaton TO mercy, v hich would have