THAW’S ESCAPE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9067, 6 February 1908, Page 2

THAW’S ESCAPE.

The Judge’s charge was in accord with sec. 21 of Penal Cede of New York, which says: ‘'A person is not excusable from criminal liability as an idiot, imbecile, lunatic, or insane person except upon proof that at time of committing the [alleged crime he was labouring under such a defect of reason as either not to know the nature or quality of the act or to know that the act was wrong. According to 1 egal experts, there were six verdicts open to the jury in the Thaw case. These verdicts—among which the jury has chosen No. 5, as aimed at by the defence—arejas under: — 1. Murder in the first degree, the penalty for which is death. 2. Murder in the second the penalty for which is life imprisonment. - 3. Manslaughter in the first degree, the penalty for which is imprisonment for twenty years. J 4. Manslaughter in the second degree, punishable by fifteen years’ imprisonment. . 5. Not guilty, on the ground that the defendant was insane at the time of the shooting, 6. Not guilty, without any explanation. The present jury was out for eleven hours. The last jury, which disagreed, was out for 47 hours 8 minutes. JProbably the record for an American jury’s deliberations is held by the good men and true who took 59 hours 10 minutes to find William J. Koerner guilty of murder in the first degree. The present jury took 14 ballots; the last one took 8. It is estimated that the last trial cost 300,000 dollars, of which about 235,000 dollars was spent by the Thaw family.—Dominion.