Page:The Great Harry Thaw Case.djvu/214

 formal demand by District Attorney Jerome that a commission in lunacy be appointed to pass on the mental condition of Harry Thaw, that the young prisoner might be sent to a mad-house at once if found insane. Justice Fitzgerald asked time to consider the question, and demanded from both sides the names of all the alienists involved in the case, to guide him in selecting a commission.

Jerome was happy. He made this statement:

"The situation is just what I have been looking for all during the trial. A man who should be incarcerated in an insane asylum should not be on trial for his life."

The justice held a special session of court, with the jury absent, for the purpose of receiving affidavits from alienists for both sides, to aid him in determining whether or not a commission in lunacy should be appointed. Mr. Jerome called the court's special attention to the following statements by Dr. Carlos MacDonald:

"After careful examination of the exhibits and the hypothetical question and the testimony and affidavits of Mr. Cobb and assuming evidence stated in the case to be true, my personal observation, in court during the trial and also including certain observations that I made of the defendant in the library of the district attorney's office on the 27th day of June, 1906, I am of the opinion that the