The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-01-30
Jerome Began Speech This
Morning and Described
Crime and Verdicts That
Might Be Returned.
SENSATION AS HE
DEPICTED SHOOTING.
Waved Revolver AIoft and De-
cIared ThaW Was Response
BILE on Night of Shooting and
There Was But One Verdict.

New York. Jan. 3O.-The court was
crowded with people who wished to
hear Jerome make his closing state
ment in the Thaw trial this morning.
He complimented the jury on the at
tention it had given the case. He
claimed the great question is, was
Thaw insane on the roof garden the
night of the crime. Murder he said,
in the first degree must be premedi-
tated. If the evidence shows design
to kill but lacks delibcration, then it
is murder in the second degree, He
said the jury could not return a verdict
of manslaughter because a revolver
was used. Jerome declared that the
motive for the crime vas the story
that White had WrOngcd Evelyn and
had threatened TO kill ThaW. With
jealousy and hate and a revolver in
his pocket no other motive for the sen
Sational shooting was needed.
jerome reacted the scene of the trag
edy by swapping d revolver and hold
ing il aloft, declared ThaW was respon-
sible on the night OF the shooting and
For almost four hours yesterday
Martin w. Littlcton stood in the for
nm of the Criminal Court defending
Harry Thaw for the murder of Stan
ford White.
Seldom has 4 summing up been SD
masterful or fOrceful when the mater
ialS Of its construction are considered.
Mr.. Iittleton fastened upon the minds
of the jury the facts of the murder as
seen from his standpoint. Link by
link he broke the chain of testimony
hanging about the neck of the defend
ant Witness after witness was
trussed upon the lance Of the speak
Cr's oratory. riddled and cast aside. 1t
was The one great day for the de
fcnsc.
The aged Mrs. Thaw listened, and Il
faint smile came into her blOodless
features. Later on she wept. Her
daughter, Mrs. George Lauder Carne-
gle, seemed upborne on the wings of
hope. Josiah Thaw's sallow face
took on a look that was almost bright.
Harry Thaw seemed to inhale the
odors of the big cafes along Broad
way, to feel the power of his bottom
less purse, and to soar aloft on the
worn wings of his life's despair.
Young Mrs. Thaw sat in her old
seat with the family and heard it all.
II would have been interesting to
know the thoughts that filtered
through her small. alert mind as She
listened to the sledge-hammer blows
delivered in her behalf by her hus-
bands counsel. She alone knew wheth-
or or not they were gymnastics Of IN
tyuth. or whether the hot metal on the
anvil, so prodigiously hammered by
J.ittleton, was pure gold or base alloy.
She gave no sign.
Mr. Littleton said that he would
show that the plea Of insanity was not
invented-that it was hereditary on
Thaws part. He said:
His brain was affected with a fever
at months. and to the age of 30
Years he has been passing on and out
of the sunlight and shadow of this life
until he finds himself before this jury.
Pleads for ThaW.
Mr. Littleton said he asked nothing
serve, in reaching it's verdict. the ordi-
nary rules of any ordinary trial in an
ordinary Court OF an American com
mnlity He cautioned the jurors to
Keep clearly before them the fact that
the presumption Of innocence is al
ways with the defendant until hr was
proved guilty.
At some length Mr.. LirtIoton ex
planned the doctrine of reasonable
doubt.
In a case Of this kind" he sa' /
'where insanity is the plea, il is not
incumbent upon counsel for the de
fense to establish the defendants in
sanity beyond a reasonable debt. al
though l think can point out to YOU
that We have done all OF that. The
law places the burden on the Prosecu
tor to prove 10 You beyond all reason
able doubt that the defendant was
sane"
With impressive strength OF presen
tation Mr.. Littleton reviewed Harry
Thaw'S history from the time of the
prenatal incident. when his mother, in
the middle OF the night. put out heI
hand in bed to feel the cold features
of child who had suddenly died
down to the day of the tragedy.
This boy" he said. took on the
hrooding, the very melancholy which
came to the mother that fearful night
may he blinded by partisanship, but
gentlemen, can't you see with ms
that this defense IS no thing born oI
an exigency, to see that injustice is
done or that murder may be covered
but born instead of the very history OF
this boy
Reviewing the evidence in detail
and -ricLurin. the devotion OF the ole