The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-29
District Attorney Utterly Ig- nores Scientific Phase in the Thaw
 Case.
CHARGE TO JURY FRIDAY
Summing Up Begins To-day-Mr. Lit tleton, for Defendant, Will Claim That Insanity Has Not Been
 Disproven.

New York, Jan. 2S.-With no attempt on the part of the state to combat with scientific testimony the claim of in sanity urged in behalf of Harry K. Thaw, the taking of evidence in the second hearing of the famous Madison Square Garden murder trial ended to- day Tomorrow morning Martin w. Littleton will begin his plea for the de- fendant and is expected to occupy both morning and afternoon sessions with his summing up argument. District Attor- ney Jerome will speak on Thursday. He has promised to be brief and if his address should not extend beyond the morning session Justice Bowling will hand the case over to the jury on Thursday afternoon. The court an nounced, however that he probably would not deliver his charge until Fri | day morning.
 Contrary to his policy of last year. when he called nine experts in insanity to the witness chair. Mir. Jerome this year utterly ignored the scientific phase of the rebuttal case. He produced sev- eral eye witnesses to the tragedy and several police officers who handled Thaw the night of the homicide and placed on record their opinion that the defendants acts and manner were ra- tional Under agreement of counsel the testimony given by Abraham Hum mel at the last was read to the jury and the Thaw will was admitted in evil Idence without further proof as to it's custody during the six months follow ing the shooting of Stanford White. The affidavit alleged to have been made by Evelyn Nesbit in Hummel's S office, charging Thaw with cruelty and attempting falsely to place the blame for the Nestbit girls downfall upon Stanford White, also was admitted by Justice Dowling and then the case, so far as testimony was concerned. was at an end.
 Mir. Jerome's elimination of expert testimony from the rebuttal case oc- casioned much talk. Based upon his
 assertions of last year that Thaw was an incurable paranoiac, rumor had it that the prosecutor might not be dis
 pleased with verdict of not guilty
 on the ground of insanity with an en-
 suing committal of Harry Thaw to the
 asylum for the criminal insane at
 Matteawan. Throughout the trial
 however, Mir Jerome has attempted tc
 belittle and dIscredit all testimony hay
 ing to do with Thaw's irrationality. He
 has attempted to show that the youth.
 full outbursts of the defendant were
 fits of temper which deserved a
 spanking, as he expressed it. rather
 than scientific discussion He has at
 tempted to diseredit the outbreaks in
 later life with the suggestion that they : were the result of too much drink and
 nothing more That the prosecutor vii
 ridicule the expert testimony is gener-
 ally agreed. Having no experts of his own, he has a free hand in that di- rection this year
 M. Jerome's move to-day also frus-
 trated plan of the defense to call ir , sur -rebutta several of the experts who testified against Thaw at his last
 trial, but who, when MT Jerome : switched to the appointment of a lu- macy commission, made affidavits set ting forth the opinion that Thaw was so insane as to be incapable of under. standing the nature of the proceed : ings against him or of intelligent, advising with counsel
 MT Littleton in his argument
 which is expected to be an eloquent but straightforward presentation oi the facts, will contend that the pros ecution has failed to shake the cas, {, of insanity built up by the defense He will again call attention to thu law and the burden of proof it place:
 upon the state in case where insani ty is pleaded as bar to responsibilit, ] for criminal act He will contend
 and will ask Justice Bowling to care l fully instruct the jury on the point
 that once the defense has produced
 evidence of insanity it becomes thu duty of the prosecution to remov, , every reasonable doubt of insanity.