Evening star., 1926-12-01
SCIENCE At ODDS
\ IN MURDER TRIAL
Costly Experts Never Agree
on Evidence Each Sees
as IndisputabIe.
BY DOROTHY DIX.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
GnMERNrII L n nnnonnl

opeCiA 4uspAtCn 10 Inc star.
SOMERVILLE, n. j., December L.
A murder trial without an assortment
of high priced experts would lack class
and style. 1t would not be comme IL
faut. 1t might not be even legal and
binding. But to the poor, humble lay
mind, untutored in Jurisprudence, it
does seem the most futile and footless
thing in the world.
For, behold. the prosecution puts
upon the witness stand one. or six, or
dozen learned gentlemen. Each are
cogniZed authority in mental diseases,
or poison, or handwriting, or finger
prints, and they solemnly swear that
this is thus and that A makes u.
Whereupon the defense counters by
also putting upon the witness stand
one, or six, or a dozen equally learned
gentlemen who are equally famous
authorities in mental diseases, or
poisons, or handwriting, or finger
prints, and they solemnly swear that
this is not thus and that by no posSl-
BILE combination of circumstances
could A ever become T.
And there we are. And where are
we? Whom are we to believe? Shall
we pin our faith to tn professor VINO
has the most knobs on his forehead,
or to the one who has. the longest hair
or TO the one who wears the heaviest
rims to his glasses and looks the most
like an owl and uses the longest
words, or shall we cast all of his costly
erudition into the junk heap and b"
guided by the plain facts in the case
that we can understand and try to
fathom the impulses that might make
person do a certain thing under GER
tain conditions because we, too, have
felt similar impulses?
Held Battling to Jury.
Anyway, can imagine jury, after
listening to expert testimony all day,
going home and taking it's collective
head in its collective hands and. tear
ing it's collective hair, cry out in
agony, Gosh. but those experts were
fierce They've got me going around
in circles. Which Of those birds is
giving us the light dope? Come on,
let's play pinochle"
All of which is leading up to saying
that the Hall-Mills case is being con-
Quoted in the most recherche and eX-
pensive manner, and that we have
experts to burn, both pro and con.
Yesterday the handwriting experts
had their inning, and after long study
and diligcnt investigation with the
microscope of Henry Stevens little
pocket diary they announced that the
entry he made in it on September 13,
fish and going to call on Art and
doing something else was written
with three different lead pencils, and
that putting in the bluetish was an
after-thought.
All of which, of course, will be fatty
denied by the defense's handwriting
experts when they get a chance to
play ball.
Then the fingerprint experts came
IN hn
hour or two hearing all about the
ridges and islands and the dots in
the mark on the card found at DIR.
Halls feet, and which the experts
for the prosecution say was made by
Willie Stevens finger. and the experts
for the defense say was never in. the
world made by Willie's digit.
Agree It's Exact Science.
And the only thing that the two
sets of experts agree upon is that
fin@eriti'int ing is an exact science, in
which there is no room for differ
ence of opinion or difference Of inter
probation, as there is in law and medi-
cine, which throws a humorous light
on the situation.
And evidently scientists have small
faith in each other, for the defense
accuses the pros cution tingerprint
print on the card which is the main
foundation on which the case rests,
and the prosecution accuses the de-
fense OF having distorted the finger
print that they have enlarged to gi-
Eantic size so that it is no longer a
chart for the jury to go by.
Rebuttal testimony is only grown
people saying. like quarreling chill
dren, you're another!" Witnesses
n "a
nesses SO that in the end you may
take your choice of whom to believe.
Senator Simpson brought in a number
of Mrs. GibSon'S friends and neigh
borS, who testified that they regarded
her as a truthful woman. in contra
diction to he" other friends and neigh
bors who a few days ago had declared
that her reputation for truth and
Veracity was bad. But Mrs. Gibson's
doctor who somehow got mixed up
with these admiring acquaintances.
balled things up for bit by refusing
to join in the chorus of admiration.
Then Mrs Marie Demarcst, who
seems to have the habit of seeing men
who say they never saw her, was
called in to contradict Di Martini's
statement that he had never seen her
and did not know her. And then Sen
ator Simpson introduced in evidence
the statement that Willie Stevens
made in the prosecutors office, in
which he is said TO have told that it
was l 80 clock instead of 2:30 O'Clock
when he and his sister went on their
fruitless search to the church for Mr..
Hall and that he stayed in his room
after supper on the night of the muir
der instead of coming downstairs to
tell his sister good night. as he testi-
fed he did.
Now Await Fireworks.
Dull and tedious the last few days
of the trial. after the crisis of the
drama is past, and we are waiting for
the fireworks at the end. All the evi-
dence is in, all OF the cards are on the
table. and there remains nothing but
the anxious waiting for the verdict
to know who has won and who has
lost Dull and tireSome. those of us