Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-21
THAW MAY LIVE.
BUT NOT FREE
Prosecution Is Confident He Will Be
Sent To Lunatic Asylum.

sits this afternoon is probable. Today's
session being informal the rules of law
and evidence will not be enforced and either
side may place before the court any evil
dence that it desires to show the mental
condition of the defendant The jury will
not be present, and the sole object of the
proceeding Is that the Judge may be in
formed Of all the facts in the case and on
them decide whether or not he will stop
the trial until a legal commission has de-
cided whether Thaw is in such condition
as to permit his case going to the jury.
The law of New York state specifies that
the only insanity that can excuse a crime
Is a mental arrangement which makes the
person charged with crime incapable Of
knowing the nature or quality Of his act
when 1t is committed and incapable Of
knowing that 1t is wrong.
This law, which is founded on an old
English decision. is far behind the times.
according to alenists. Many a man, they
say. has an overpowering impulse to com
nit crime, an impulse which he Is unable
to conquer and which forces him to crime,
but If his mental state Is such that he real
ICES that he is doing wrong, the law does
not take into account the insane impulse
which he is unable to overcome.
1uo Ease OIL Taylor.
An example of this is the case of Taylor,
which was cited by District Attorney Je-
rome in his argument yesterday. Taylor
was a paranoiac and committed murder
while suffering from a delusion. 1t was adj
mitted that he was insane, but the alienists
would not swear that his insanity was of
such a character that he did not know that
his act was wrong. The appellate court
oil xr,tfp
doubt insane, but that under the law his
insanity was not of such character that
it excused his act, and he was executed.
Another case in point Is that of Aaron
Taschjian, an Armenian, who has just been
transferred to the Dannemora hospital for
the criminally insane after ten days in
Sing Sing prison, where he was sent on
conviction of murder in the second degree
for killing his brother and cutting the body
to pieces. DIR. Carlos Macdonald and DR..
Austin Flint, both of whom have been wit
nesses for the prosecution in the Thaw case,
testified as experts for the prosecution in
this case that they were convinced that the
Armenian was insane, but We're not able
to swear that his insanity was such that
he was incapable of knowing his act was
wrong, as required by the statute.
The Gases Alike.
Il believe the Thaw case and the Tasch-
jan case to be exactly parallel District
Attorney Jerome said yesterday. Both are
insane and both are suffering from para
noia. The trial of Thaw is an outrage. He
should be sent to an insane asylum. But
under the law l have not been able to show
that he is insane. l am bound by the legal
aspect of the case, and the moral side of 1t
l am not allowed to enter into. My very
experts who have testified that they did
not believe Thaw's mental condition was
such that he did not know the nature and
quality of his act and that it was wrong
are ready to testify that they believe him
to be insane L have tried throughout this
case to bring in this moral aspect but
have been baked at every step There
fore, there has been nothing for me to do
but conduct the case along the strict legal
lines. l believe Thaw is insane, and l be-
lieve the insane hospital is the place for
him. Not of the alienists who has
been on the stand has examined Thaw since
October, and not one word of testimony
garding his mental condition since that time
has been put in evidence"