Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-04-11

cause you believe that this killing was
justifiable Justifiable does not mean
'dementia Americana it means defence.
But when a man sits with his head in
his hand and is deliberately shot with
a pistol held SO close to him that after
the shooting the victims own brotner-
in-law, did not recognize him, 1t could
hardly be called self-defence cast OF
the Mississippi river.
There can be logically but one of
four verdicts returned by you-murder
in the first degree, because there was
not any design, but premeditation;
murder in the second degree, because
there was design but no premeditation;
manslaughter. because there was
neither design or reconciliation, but
merely the heat of passion; or lastly,
not guilty because of insanity.
Gentlemen of the jury, an effort to
inflame your passions and to turn your
mind from the issue in this trial to an
other 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.
TO base an appeal to your SYM
parture from the duty Of counsel.
You must reach your verdict by
purely and plainly an Intellectual pro-
cess-as you would dispose of a prob
lem in arithmetic. You are to judge
by the facts. You must not decide
upon the opinion of counsel on either
side of the court, except as 10 the law
laid down by the court. You must
take the law as the court gives it 10
YOU. You cannot shake your personal
responsibility by evading it.
If we are going into the proposition
of sympathy, it can be played upon ny
both sides. Have you tn ought OF the
widow in Cambridge and the father
less boy in Harvard? l mention TINS,
men, that you may see what the ques-
ton Of sympathy has naught to do
with the issues here.
Whether you believe he story told
by this girl, whether you believe IN
the sublime Remuneration she made ~
Thaw's offer Of marriage to another
within. your sympathies are bound TO
assert themselves i'll one form or an
other. There is here every element to
arouse your passion. You can't ne'p
it. But " hen you consider your YER
dice, you must lay it aside and govern
yourself solely by intellectual! process
es."
On the question of reasonable doubt,
Mr.. jerome said it was such a doubt
as nan would act upon in matters
pertaining to his own private affairs
and nothing more.
1T must be a doubt Of which YOU
reasonably or morally certain. red
sonable doubt is not a mere Whim.
"On the subject of insanity you jllr-
orS were carefully examined said .Ir.
Jerome. You swore to take the law
as it was laid down by the court. You
swore you would accept only that
| form of insanity which dcprivcS man
of the knowledge Of th4 nature and
| quality Of his act. or that Is wrong
| that is, against the current morality
of the community.
you did not swear not to bring this
| 'Dementia Americana into the case"
Mr. Jerome sarcaStically repeated the
| title Mr.. DelmaS had yesterday given
to Thaw form Of insanity He Missed
| it every time it occurred in his argu-
| ment.
".Dementia Americana men. has no
place In your verdict. You Swore TO
! take no higher law than the law Of
your state.
"'Dementa Americana What is
| this 'Dementia Americana which waits
and glarcs at its enemy for three years
and then kills II waits three long
years and grows bitter and then
strikes.
''Dementia Americana'-thatf luants
the woman 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 hide itself under the hem of d
Woman's skirt.
'Dementia Americana'-S that the
law which puts a woman up to tell of
her shame, or misfortune as the case
may bc-in the hope it will shield a
worthless life from a peoples just de-
mand"
That is not the kind of law you
swore to accept and if you do it, men,
you violate your oaths.'
Mr. Jerome took up the evidence of
the witnesses of the direct case and
with the aid OF large diagram show
ed the jury how Thaw moved about
the roof garden and before the shoot
ing.
He referred to the testimony OF James
Clinch Smith.
do YOU remember TruXton Beale and
tie case Of two men and a woman? 2
Thaw asked Smith. Perhaps. gentlemen.
my learned friend from the Pacific slope
remembers it: perhaps he remembers
that case of 'lementia Americana.
'Thaw walked deliberately across the
room and in such a manner that his en-
envy should have no chance to defend
himself. then turned suddenly holding the
pistol SC close to Stanford Whites head
that after he was dead Mr.. Smith, his
brother .ir-law. did not know him be-
c,;use of the powder marks. and fred
once, twice. three times
Mr.. jerome picked Up the pistol from
"A table and as he spoke the words. pune
;latel then by pulling the trigger three
times. the click of the hammer being
heard in every corner of the room.
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 tells you. he
stood with his arms extended like a