The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-02-11
STAND ON 4uNwKrrrEN Law.
The Insanity Plea Merely Legal
Gate for Mrs. Thaw's story.
CIV Julian .Hawthorne.)

! (EY Julian tHaWInOIncsl
| New York, Feb. 1.-THE defense. OF
Thaw, as maintained last week, com
| manded attention and interest because
| 1T has followed natural lines Inc
primitive laws of right and wrong, OF
| human nature at bay against 1tSell,
have assumed the leading place In the
drama, while the statute law is devised
| by civilized man, though not avowedly
| ignored or defined, has nevertheless
been practically evaded, and its IN
ability to deal successfully with some
OF the most vital pro blems OF human
conduct has been demonstrated.
What is now brought before us is
the spectacle of forms and interpreta-
higher law which seeks Justice by
penetrating through the entangle-
ments of legal forms, and which ex-
poses the incompetence of all forms
which tend to put the letter of justice
above the spirit of it and to excuse
from prevention or penalty some. of
the foulest iniquities incident to So
cial relations. We have heard the
story of the betrayal of a young girl
by an elderly rake, told on the witness
stand by the girl herself; told in all
its hideous details, in words and
with a manner and a voice that con-
vinced the hearers of the truth of her
tale. This has been done in the teeth
OF the fact that the letter of the law
forbids doing it; when the matter of
trial is not the betrayal of the girl,
but the act to which, in consequence
of it, her husband was driven. How
could this be possible? Only by intro
ducing the testimony, not ostensfbly
for its own sake, but in order to show
cause for the insanity which was to be
the technical plea in behalf OF the
husband.
Viewed from this standpoint the
woman's downfall became pertinent as
evidence to avert the death penalty
from her husband, and the sole stipu-
lation which the prosecution could in
terpose was that the witness should
tell on the witness stand nothing that
she had not already told to the pros
oner at the bar. But, inasmuch as the
latter would NATURAL have cross
questioned her as to the minutest de-
tails, the legal stipulation in question
could be easily satisfied In truth, 1t
would hardly be possible for her to
tell more, or even so much, to the ex-
aminer in the court room, as had
been drawn from her by the Unsuitable
and self-torturing curiosity of the man
who loved her, who, as always in cases
where jealousy is involved, could not
too fully inform himself of circum-
stnces which put him on the rack.
Though they destroy him, he must
need know them, and no legal cross
examiner could elicit so much.
But another remarkable feature of
this defense is the fact that the tech
meal charge of Evelyn Thaw's testi-
mony dsbars the state from cross ex-
aiming her at all. For her testimony
was not offered as matter of fact, but
merely as a story which, true or false,
operated to unsettle the defendants
reason. All that the state can do is
to question the witness as to whether
all that she told on the stand had been
related previously to defendant, but
obviously, this line of Interrogation
could result only in failure. If it could
be successful no doubt it would annul
her entire story from the legal stand
point, but it can not succeed.
And even did it succeed, the effect of
it upon the jury is an accomplished
fact and no adjurat1onS on the part or
the prosecution, or even of the Judge,
to the effect that they must dismiss
it from their minds in forming their
verdict would have any perceptible in
fiuence upon them. They have heard
it. and they credited it; and legal in
functions cannot extirpate from a man
his belief. Nevertheless, the district
attorney who is at his wits end, may
make an effort to defeat Evelyn's testi-
mony in this way; that he will leave no
stone unturned to obtain conviction
of the defendant at whatever cost to
Justice, is evident from his attitude re-
garding the will of the defendant-a
holograph offered by the defense as in
dicative of the abnormal state of the
prisoners mind just before the killing.
But it is of Importance to the DEFENSE,
not on account of the insanity plea
cause it shows that Thaw apprehended
an attack upon his own life from White
and also that he had regarded himself
as a sort of general champion and pro-
tector of young girls who might be la
BILE to outrage similar to that If which
his wife had been the victim. That
he included in his will provisions for
the defense of such girls proves that he
took himself and his situation serious
Nv and that he fully believed all thai
aad fn