6i8
THE GREEN BAG
tive of an intent to steal. The woman dis appeared and it was impossible to show upon the trial that she had anything in her pocket. While it was true that a Massachu setts decision in a precisely similar case, held that such an act was a criminal attempt (Commonwealth v. McDonald, 5 Cush. 365), the last English cases (Reg. v. McPherson D. & B., 197 and Reg. a. Collins L. & C.,4yi) together with the whole trend of English de cision, were to the contrary, while the law in New York, though in a somewhat confused condition, seemed to favor the English ruleJerome argued the point tenaciously in the trial court and convicted his man, the verdict in all probability, being the result quite as much of the jury's liking for the persistence and determination of the young assistant as of their horror of the crime itself. The rest of the staff told Jerome he was wasting time to follow the thing up on appeal; but he spent many laborious days and nights upon his brief, and argued the case with much learning and subtlety before the Gen eral Term of the Supreme Court, where he had the chagrin of seeing the conviction re versed on a rather specious distinction be tween "intent" and "attempt," the court standing two to one, with Justices Van Brunt and Barrett prevailing against Jus tice Daniels. Nothing daunted, Jerome ap pealed the case into the Court of Appeals, where this time the conviction was unani mously sustained and the decision of the General Term reversed (Peo. v. Moran, 123 N. Y. 254), while the court in a ten page opinion disapproved the English cases of Reg. v. McPherson and Reg. v. Collins. A few years later, the Court of Crown Cases Reserved over-ruled Reg. v. Collins in Reg. v. Brown (16 Cox, C. C. 715), arid Reg. v. Ring (17 Cox C. C. 491), and fell into line with the Moran case. Jerome resumed private practice in 1890 and almost immediately had a second opportunity to distinguish himself, being retained as special counsel for The People to argue The People versus Cannon on ap
peal. This case, which has since become a controlling decision on that branch of con stitutional law, turned upon the constitu tionality of a statute making the mere possession of certain articles by dealers insecond-hand materials presumptive evidence of illegal traffic. Everett P. Wheeler and William J. (now Justice) Gaynor, offered an able brief for the appellants, but the Court of Appeals in a fourteen page opinion sus tained the act. (Peo. v. Cannon, 139 N. Y. 645-)
The first case in which Jerome appeared as private counsel, and which attracted at the time any very wide attention, was that of The People versus Carlisle Harris. Hehad not sought criminal cases on entering general practice and most of his work had. been purely civil in character, but he could ill afford to refuse a retainer, and prepared himself thoroughly to defend his client as . best he could. It will be recalled that Harris had been indicted for poisoning his girl wife by means of morphine, and the clinical history of the case pointed clearly towards that conclusion. It was obvious from the start, that the only phase of the case upon which any adequate doubt could possibly be raised was on the actual cause of death. Jerome made an exhaustive study of the chemical and physiological questions in volved, even undertaking some original ex periments, and advanced as a defense the theory of ptomaine poisoning, which up to that time had hardly been heard of in a court of law. While John A. Taylor ap peared as senior counsel, upon Jerome fell the entire burden of the actual conduct of the trial, and although Harris was justly convicted, Jerome's brilliant cross-examina tion of the prosecution's experts will long be remembered, as well as the learning and ingenuity which he displayed in an obvi ously hopeless cause. Shortly after this he was retained, to gether with John W. Goff, now Recorder of New York County, as counsel for the Com mittee of Seventy, in which capacity he
