THE THAW BASE.

NZ Truth, Issue 92, 23 March 1907, Page 5

THE THAW BASE.

EMOTIONAL INSANITY THE DEFENCE

What Money Can Pp. <

Delmas the Plodder.

The "New York Herald;" dealing with the Thaw case, which had, at the time of publication, not been before the Courts, says that Delphin M. Delmas, known as the Napoleon of the Bar," who ]'s senior counsel for Tbatf , has prepared an amazing mass of evidence which he will present as a bulwark against the strongest assaults of the State, so that the jurors who sit m judgment on the slayer of Stanford White will, find it an impassable barrier to conviction. Thaw himself is said to have seized upon this offence with avidity, and to have an abiding faith m its efficacy. Moreover, he believes, it is said, that this will be the sineerest explanation he can make of hia action m shooting down Mr. White m the full view of hundreds on top of the roof of the Madison Square Garden. So strong a marshalling of facts and' figures to support a plea of emotional, temporary inaknity as Mr. Dehnas has gathered will act, it is said, as an epoch-making event m medico-legal jurisprudence. There has never been so urgent a case, never has so much money been available m the collection of data and the marshaling of the lore of Expert alienists, never have conditions bo strikingly lent themselves to the establishment of such a plea. Such is Delphin M. Delmaa'view. MILESTONE IN ''JURISPRUDENCE. So thorough an exposition, definition and presumptive proof of the theory that tragedies may be caused by emotional insanity has never before been compiled. ;., It is said that the Thaws have become convinced that it is to strike the shackles from their erratic, eccentric kinsman! s wrists. They believe thaj;;. teamed lawyers Who Will stand aghast ajf ' the overpowering audacity of the defence when .'its motive first unfolds will finally become gripped with its force and; legal acumen before it is set up complete as a barrier to. the law's reprisal upon Harry Thayr. f Delphin M. Dehnas is a, patient, painstaking man. He has never been so patient and painstaking as now. He has scoured the world for material for his offence. The writings of students . have been brought from libraries where ' they, had lain on muety, unhandled shelves, and searched foe proof that battling emotions may project a piari into a mental frenzy Tendering him incapable of distinguishing right from wrong. Oases here and abroad have been gone over with a legal fine tooth comb to extract from them some .matter to be presented to show that emotional insanity is no will-o'-the-wisp, but reality. Stripped to its last sinew, the fabric of the Thaw case lendsv itself to the emotional insanity plea as. if its separate components were meant for one another. It is said that Dehnas, the plodder, sees this, with a clearness of vision that has impressed itself convincingly upon/ Thaw, his family and their large array of counsel. ' ,