The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-04-11

equally important to the community in
which you and [ dwell that the law
shall be justly upheld.
~. gentlemen, have had no easy
task. If In the heat of the battle L
have transcribed the courtesy due to
counsel, | bog you to overlook 1T. If
in the Judgment of the court | have
gone further than | should have gone
i'm making certain statements in court,
] have nothing but regret for it. This
is a time for us all to lay aside our
anmosities The issue here ia not to
be determined upon my personality or
upon that of the counsel for the de.
| Tense
Keep clearly in mind that while the
defendant S counsel stand for the de-
PENDANT individually, there is another
side. the side of the people. of whom
You are a part, There is no action be.
tween tho executors of Stamford White
and this defendant; it is not a trial
TO determine whether Evelyn Nesbit
was ravished by Stanford White. 1t is
an issue between the people Of New
York State and Harry Thaw, and it is
to determine whether what he did was
justifable or eXcusable, or whether he
should DO punished for it.
u viii assure that, not upon the
! word of tho counsel, but upon the evi-
dence that YOU are bound by your
! oaths TO decide this issue. On the ev-
! idence | will try TO point out to YOU
! that this defendant s crime was not
! iustiRable or eXcusable and that he
should be punished.
Follow Only Evidence.
'You arc entitled TO say that this
man is guilty because the grand Jury
indicted him for murder IN the first de-
gree, but you are entitled TO consider
that on the records they said the un-
nv s1nI.r. i Il A.
charging him with murder in the first
degree. y
Mr.. Jerome went briefly into the
law covering the various classes into
which homicide is divided, describing
each.
"If You find that this. defendant was
insane when be killed White il is Your
duty 10 say so in your verdict. If YOU
do not say so il is because you believe
that this crime was justihable. Justi-
liable does not mean 'dementia Amer
icana; it means self defense. But
when man sits with his head in his
HANDS and is deliberately shot with a
pistol held so close TO him that after
the shooting the victim s own brother
ln-law did not recognize him, il can
hardly he called self defense east 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 only design but generalization
murder in the second degree, because
there was design but no premedita-
ton; manslaughter, because there was
neither design nor generalization, bar
merely the heat of passion, or lastly,
not guilty because of insanity
Gentlemen of the jury. it is for
counsel to appeal to YOU as they them
selves see their duty. To me the duty
points only to an appeal upon the evi-
dence IN court. Counsel should not in
lect other things into this case. An
effort to influence your passions and to
turn your minds from the issue in this
trlal TO another 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. You must reach your verdict by
purely and plainly an intellectual pro.
cess, as you would dispose of prob.
lem In geometry, an equation in alge-
bra, or sum in arithmetic You are
TO be the sole judges Of this issue and
You are to judge by the facts. You
must take the law as the court gives
it 20 YOU
."lf we are going into the question
OF sympathy in this trial, 1T can be
played upon both sides Hayo YOU
thought of the widow in Cambridge and
the tatherless boy in Harvard? 7 men
tlon this that you may see that the
question OF sympathy has naught to
do with the issues here -
Mr.. Jerome next quoted at length from
the examinations of the twelve Jurors
reminding them OF their oaths and what
they promised.
whether you believe the story told hv
TINS girl whether or not you believe I'm the
saDllme renunGiatlon she made Of Thaw's
Ener Tn OF marriage; your sympathies are
bound 10 assert themselves In one form
or another. There is here every element
TO arouse your passion. You can't help
II. But when you retire TO consider your
yourselves solely by intellectual pro-
cssses. Mr.. Jerome discussed the cues
ton OF reasonable doubt He said It was
Such a doubt as a man would act upon
IN matters pertaining to his own private
aHairs ,.It land and nothing no NOR; more ,,,
reasonably certain. A reasonable doubt
Is not mere whim.
Sarcastic as to Insanity.
"On the subject of insanity you were
carefully examined. You swore YOU
would not inject any ideas of your own
into your judgment. but take the law as
1t was laid down to you. You sworc
you would accept only that form of in
sanity which deprives man of the
knowledge Of the nature and quality of
MS act, or that II Is wrong You did not
swear TO bring this "dementla Ameri-
cana into the case"
Each mention of "dementia Americana"
was uttered by Mr.. Jerome with sar-
castle infection.
" Dementia Americana men, he said
has no place in your verdict. You swore
TO take no higher law than the law OF
your State.
'Dementia AmerIcana'-what is tho
'dementia Americana which waits and
glares at Its enemy for three years and
then kills? 1t waits three long years and
grows bitter and then strikes.
,Dementia Americana naunts
the woman for whom IT kills through the
capitals of Europe for two years as It's
mistress. Is that the higher law? No.
gentlemen. the higher law does not hinge
itself under the hem OF a woman's skirt
'Dementla Americana'-is that the
law which puts a woman up 10 tell OF her
shame or misfortune. as the case may
be. to all the world IN the hope that Il
VIII shield a worthless life. the peoples
Just demand?
THAT is not the kind OF law you Swore
to accept. and II you do It. men. you
violate your oaths"
Mr.. jerome took up the evidence OF
tlHU ttslf,,