ubject for trial
than a baby. A commission was appointed which reported the prisoner was
sane enough to be tried, and the case then proceeded at great length
with the surprising result that, in spite of the District Attorney's
earlier declaration that he believed Thaw to be insane, the jury
disagreed as to his criminal responsibility, a substantial number voting
for conviction. Of course, logically, they would have been obliged
either to acquit entirely on the ground of insanity or convict of murder
in the first degree, but several voted for murder in the second degree.

A year now elapsed, during which equally elaborate preparations were
made for a second trial. The State had already spent some $25,000, and
yet its experts had never had the slightest opportunity to examine or
interrogate the defendant, for the latter had not taken the stand at the
first trial. The District Attorney still remained on record as having
declared Thaw to be insane, and his own experts were committed to the
same proposition, yet his official duty compelled him to prosecute the
defendant a second time. The first prosecution had occupied months and
delayed the trial of hundreds of other prisoners, and the next bid fair
to the do same. But at this second trial the defence introduced
enough testimony within two days to satisfy the public at large of the
unbalanced mental condition of the defendant from boyhood.

After a comparatively short period of deliberation the jury acquitted
the prisoner "on the ground of insanity," which may have meant either
one of two things: (a) that they had a reasonable doubt in their own
minds that Thew knew that he was doing wrong when he committed the
murder--something hard for the layman to believe, or (b) that, realizing
that he was undoubtedly the victim of mental disease, they refused to
follow the strict legal test.

Nearly two years had elapsed since the homicide; over a hundred thousand
dollars had been spent upon the case; every corner of the community had
been deluged with detailed accounts of unspeakable filth and depravity;
the moral tone of society had been depressed; and the only element which
had profited by this whole lamentable and unnecessary proceeding had
been the sensational press. Yet the sole reason for it all was that
the law of the land in respect to insane persons accused of crime was
hopelessly out of date.

The question of how far persons who are victims of diseased mind shall
be hel