NEW YORK MURDER TRIAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13877, 15 April 1907, Page 5

NEW YORK MURDER TRIAL

JURY UNABLE TO AGREE. PROCEEDINGS COST £220,000. PRESS OPINIONS. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.- ' NEW YORK, April 12. The jury in the Thaw case was unable to agree, "and was again locked up for the night. Tim trial has cost tlio Thaw family £200,000, and New York County £20,000. (Received April lα, at S.lO p.m.) The jury could not agree in iis verdict, and was discharged. • NKW YORK, April 13. (Received April 13, at 3.10 p.m.) In connection with tho Thaw trial, seven of the jury favoured reluming a verdict of murder in the first degree, and fivo favoured acquittal on flic ground of insanity. ■ Tho newspapers, in commenting on tho result, agree in deprecating the fact that justice in America, has been impaired and delayed by tlio power of money and the introduction of confusing and irrelevant issues. LONDON, April 13. (Received April 14, at 140 p.m.) Tho Times remarks that (lie trial reveals facts explaining tin; strong animosity that exists towards a certain class of millionaires, who, knowing nothing of tho duties of wealth or the graces often coming in its train, end by seeking escape from sheer boredom in unrefined excitements.

In an arlicle referring to (he New York murder trial the' London- Daily -Mail of February U stales:—''Not often in tho sordid history of clime has a murder trial been followed by all sorts and conditions of men with tho docji and sustained interest which the public! of two continents are displaying in Iho cn;c of Mr Thaw. Tho interest k intelligible ami easily explained. It lies not in flic squalid and repulsivo features of n dismal story, but rather in' Ihe fact that for Iho first time a millionaire of immense wraith, with all the power which money fjives, is being tried as a folon for a capital crime—tho allegcl murdor of another millionaire and man of genius, 'laws, , said Anachnrsis, tho Scythian, 'aro like cobwebs wherein the small (lies are caught and from which the grout break away.' And this cynical view of American justice has- some truth in it, in view of tho fact that there is no instance on record in the United States where a man of great wealth has been srnt to execution, while there are some very recent and notorious examples of rich criminals' escapes. Yet it must also bo remembered that at no previous period hayo tbe American people shown sucb animus against wealth or such hostility to tho plutocrat. But. there is another featwo in the caso which compels attention. Notoriously, Mr Thaw intends to plead in some form or other justification by the 'unwritten lew.' His lino of defence is plainly indicated in the terrible evidence siven by Mrs Thaw, his wife. Accepting nor story as truthful, and it should to remembered that she has still to undergo cross-examination upon it, the problem becomes this: Is a man justified for the lovo of a woman, his wife, in killing another man, who, as ho believes, lias inflicted on tlin-fc womsvu the most onto! wrong imaginable, a- wrong, 100, wliieh the formal processes of tho written law cannot adequately minish? Slated in thi3 form, there moy well lie beneath the drama now in profrrcss in Jndgj Filztroralcl's court one of those primal and perplexing conS'rcto between two different views of right, on which all pjieat tragedy las hinged. Tho view that the 'unwritten law' affords an excuse /for such a.n act as Jlr Thaw's woukl bo a. dangerous nne .for wciielv to admit. 'Mea cannot enjoy,' said Burke, 'the rights of an uncivil and a, civil State together.' Thev cannot in one awl tho sr.mo brrath claim thj amenities of civilised society and the. right to act. on the dictate? of rcvonjo. Tho siory wliieh first, provoked Mr Thaw's fury had been told to him by Mis; Evelyn Nesbit. the famous actrefs and boautv, three years before he shot Sir Stanford White fit the Madison Square Hoof Garden. Mr White made her acquaintance while she was yet a mere child, and iis«l life power over'her lo drasr her and ruin her. Subsequently ho lea.rnt. that Mr Thaw had fallen in love with her and was seeking to ma.rry her, so for this reason, according lo Mis Thaw's story, lie resorted to evnry insidious stratagem lo l«xp her from Mr Thaw. Ho poisoned her mind with tales of Mr Thaw's violence, nrafiicfiioy. anil drunkenness, ind persuaded her to sign dornmenfs in which she made iravc awnsatifins against Mr Thaw. Finally, when she marriod Mr Thaw, he rontinufd to rorspcure her with his attentions. It is allewd that on the very nitfit, of tho shooting , he again mo'ested her, a.nd lh.it. mud with i.iijo at Ilia por?isienf. molestation. Mr Thaw committed the deed in the Hadisrm Square,Tk-of Garden. Tho jury alone can decide whether this version is true, and till they have pronounced their verdict > r is impossible to comment upon tho ftory."