“The defendant has taken an active part in the conduct of the trial, has made numerous suggestions orally in court and by letter as to the selection of jurors and the examination of witnesses. Many of these suggestions were deemed valuable and were adopted by his counsel, and examination of the letters referred to shows that generally the suggestions contained in them were material, sensible, and apparently the product of a sane mind.
“While the testimony of numerous experts called by the district attorney and the defendant’s counsel is irreconcilable, that given by certain experts who personally examined the defendant during the trial and since the appointment of the commission, and who of all the alienists examined had greatest opportunity of observing, disclosed the fact that no indication of insanity at the present could be found in the speech, conduct, or physical condition of the defendant.
“The direct oral and physical examination of the defendant by the commissioners themselves disclosed no insanity in the defendant at the present time. Upon all of the facts it is our opinion that at the time of our examination the said Harry K. Thaw was and is sane and was not and is not in a state of idiocy, imbecility, lunacy, or insanity so as to be incapable of rightly understanding his own condition, the nature of the charges against him, and of conducting his defense in a rational manner.
“David McClure,
“Peter B. Olney,
“Leopold Putzel.”
This was a staggering blow to Jerome, who protested loudly. The defense was elated. Thaw was not in court to hear the decision, and the jurors also were barred. All the members of the prisoner’s family, however, were present, and Evelyn Thaw herself conveyed the glad news to her husband. Harry was not surprised at the finding.
“It is only what I expected,” he declared. “I am as sane as any man on earth.”
The district attorney, who had been threatening to “appeal to the Appellate court and have the trial stopped,” suddenly decided to yield to the inevitable.
CHAPTER XX.
Delmas, Nestor of Western Bar.
SWAYS JURYMEN BY HIS ELOQUENCE—WAS BRILLIANT AS A STUDENT—HONORED BY SANTA CLARA ACADEMY—STARTS POOR, AMASSES A FORTUNE—DELMAS’ METHODS—IMPORTANT CASES HE HAS CONDUCTED.
The supreme moment for the defense came on April 8, when Delphin M. Delmas, the master orator of the Pacific coast bar, arose to address the jury in what proved to be the greatest forensic effort heard in a New York court since the days of Daniel Webster.