Saturday, 7th March 1914: Protesting Innocence Frank Is Re-sentenced, The Atlanta Journal

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Reading Time: 11 minutes [1904 words]

MANUSCRIPT OF FRANK'S STATEMENT -Staff

Photo by Winn.

The above is from a photographic reproduction of the concluding paragraph of the Leo M. Frank statement to Judge Ben Hill in the criminal division of the Fulton County superior court Saturday morning, before he was resentenced to hang on April 17.

Frank had written his last appeal in the Tower and memorized it.

PAGE 1, COLUMN 7

COURT SAYS HE MUST HANG ON APRIL 17

"In the Presence of Supreme Judge,

Whose Omnipresent Eye Is Now Upon Me,

I Assert I am Not Guilty of Little Mary Phagan's Death and Do Not Know How It Occurred,"

He Tells Judge

CONDEMNED TO BE HANGED ON THIRTIETH BIRTHDAY

As Judge Announced Day on Which He Should Pay Penalty on the Gallows for Murder for the Little Factory Girl,

Frank Turned to a Friend Standing Near and Said, "That Is My Birthday".

At 11 o'clock Saturday morning Leo M. Frank was sentenced to be hanged on April 17 of this year for the murder of Mary Phagan, nearly one year ago.

Sentence was passed by Judge Benjamin H. Hill in the Fulton County superior court room in the presence of about 100 people, immediately following a statement Frank made.

It is a remarkable coincidence that the date of the hanging falls on Frank's birthday, a fact that became known only after sentence had been passed, when Frank turned to friend and quietly said, "That is my birthday."

He was born in 1884 in Paris, Texas.

Frank was brought to the court room in the Thrower building in an automobile by Sheriff C. Wheeler Mangum and Deputies Minor and Stanley.

He wore a derby and tan overcoat.

Accompanying him was a friend, Emile Strauss.

COURT ROOM PACKED.

Only a few people were in the court room when Frank entered, but within a few minutes it was packed, so soon the news spread that the hour of Frank's resentencing kept secret was at hand.

Judge Hill was not in the court room when Frank entered.

Frank walked over to his lawyers and shook hands and remained standing until the judge came in.

Then he sat down on the front row just beneath the judge's rail.

"Is Frank here?" said Judge Hill to the deputies as he entered.

They told him he was.

Deputy Minor rapped for order and the crowd sought seats.

The deputy had to rap again, so great was the confusion.

Judge Hill fixed his eyes on the prisoner seated a few feet from him and said, "Leo Frank, stand up."

While Frank stood before him the judge said, "Is there any reason why the court should not at this time carry into effect the sentence heretofore imposed in this case?"

Frank took the question to refer to him and started to speak, but halted when he saw that, the judge had meant it for Attorney Reuben Arnold.

Mr. Arnold replied that he had nothing to say, but that Frank had a statement to make.

Frank had put his hand on the judge's railing, but he dropped it to his side when he began his statement.

He looked directly at Judge Hill and began speaking in a quiet voice that penetrated to every corner of the courtroom.

The crowd was silent enough to have heard a pin drop, Frank raised his hands from his sides to his hips as his speech progressed and toward the latter part made dramatic gestures, raising his hands and pleading with all the eloquence of an attorney delivering his argument.

Frank's statement follows verbatim:

FRANK'S STATEMENT.

May it please Your Honor, I trust Your Honor will understand that I speak impersonally, addressing my words more to the bench as representing the majesty of the law of Georgia than to the gentleman now on the bench.

I well know that Your Honor has naught to do with the various vicissitudes of my case.

In Your Honor's presence, representing human law, and in the presence of the Supreme Judge, who at this very moment is casting the light of His omnipotent and omnipresent eye upon me, from His throne on high, I assert I am innocent of little Mary Phagan's death and have no knowledge of how it occurred!

Law, as we know it.

Your Honor, is but the expression of man's legal experience.

It is but relative.

It tries to approximate justice.

But being man-made is fallible!

In the name of the law many grievous errors have been committed errors that were colossal and irretrievable!

I declare to Your Honor now (Continued on PAGE 2, COLUMN 2.)

PAGE 2, COLUMN 2

FRANK RESENTENCED TO HANG ON APRIL 17;

GOES BACK TO TOWER (Continued from Page.

1.)

that the state of Georgia is about to make such an error!

The law says that when one has lost his life through violence of another, the perpetrator of the deed must answer with his own.

Let me be just.

But the law does not say that where one is killed a blood sacrifice shall be made of the next convenient individual.

If this latter obtains, then taking of such life is not justice.

It is but murder legalized!

Oh, what a terrible thing this is to contemplate!

Your Honor is about to pronounce words that will thrust me over the abyss that separates our earthly existence from the higher life, the life eternal.

I may shortly stand before the tribunal of the Higher Judge of whom human minds have but the slightest connection.

Before the tribunal I will be adjudged as I now am innocent and will receive the reward of those who suffer wrongfully on this earth!

FALSE STORIES CIRCULATED.

Your honor, an astounding and outrageous state of affairs obtained previous to and during my trial.

On the streets rumor and gossip carried vile, vicious and damning stories concerning me and my life.

These stories were absolutely false and did me great harm, as they beclouded and obsessed the public mind and outraged it against me.

From a public in this state of mind, the jury that tried me was chosen.

Not alone were these stories circulated on the street, but to the shame of our community, be it said, these vile insinuations crept into my very trial, in the court room, creeping in insidiously, like a thief in the night.

The virus of these damning insinuations entered the minds of the twelve men and stole away their judicial frame of mind and their moral courage.

The issues at bar was lost,

The poison of the unspeakable things took its place.

Your honor, in this presence, and before God, I earnestly ask that God in His mercy may deal lightly with those who, unwittingly I trust, have erred against me, and will deal with them according to His divine judgement!

If the state and the law wills that my life be taken as a blood atonement for the poor little child who was ruthlessly killed by another, then it remains for me only to die with whatever fortitude my manhood may allow.

But I am innocent of this crime.

And the future will prove it.

I am now ready for your honor's sentence.

There was a pause when Frank ended and then Judge Hill read the formal sentence, the preamble citing the conviction of the prisoner, the denial of his appeal for a new trial and the confirmation of the appeal ruling by the supreme court.

Judge Hill made no comments, but in passing sentence on Frank, read the following order:

State of Georgia versus Leo M. Frank, No. 9410.

Superior Court Fulton County, Georgia.

Murder.

Upon inquiry into facts and circumstances of this case it appears that the defendant, Leo M. Frank, was on August 25, 1913, convicted of murder and thereupon on the 26th day of August, 1913, duly sentenced by the order of this court to the punishment of death.

And it further appears that said sentence has not been executed having been superseded and stayed by a motion for a new trial, and an appeal thereon to the supreme court of the state of Georgia, which said court affirmed the verdict and the judgement of this court and an appropriate order having been passed on the third day of March, 1914, making said judgement of affirmance by the supreme court the judgement of this court;

And it appearing that sentence heretofore imposed still stands in full force and effect and that no legal reason exists against the execution of said sentence.

It is here and now ordered and adjudged that the sheriff of Fulton County be, and he is, hereby commanded to do execution of such sentence aforesaid on the 17th day of April, 1914, in the manner and form designated in said sentence and prescribed by law.

Let the petition and writ of habeas corpus, and the order be entered on the minutes of this court this 7th day of May, 1914.

BEN H. HILL.

Judge Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia.

Frank showed no emotion as the purport of the sentence reached him, only turning to a friend to remark on the date falling on his birthday.

He left the court room for the jail immediately, accompanied by the deputies.

The crowd at once dispersed.

There was no sort of demonstration.

TIMES' EDITORIAL.

The New York Times not only published the Georgia chamber of commerce's protest against an alleged interview which a representative of that paper had with one of Frank's attorneys, but it commented editorially on the protest.

In part it said:

The city of Atlanta is not unlike other American communities, with the majority of its citizens self-respecting and law abiding.

There is a fringe of the population there, as in other cities, made of that more emotional and excitable class which does not always behave well under such tests as that of the trial of Frank.

There had been a somewhat unusual number of unpunished crimes in Atlanta, and there was public insistence that the guilt be speedily fixed in the case of the murderer of the Phagan girl.

Certain newspapers treated the crime in a highly sensational way, and there undoubtedly was a good deal of excitement over the case.

But this is what happens in other cities, even in large cities like New York.

The conditions are by no means peculiar to Atlanta, and it is not just that the reputation of that city should suffer as if it were somehow inhabited by a different order of beings.

Some of the comments upon the Frank case venture a comparison with the trial of Becker in New York.

The cases are totally unlike.

There was inherent probability of guilt in Becker's case, for the evidence established a very intimate association between him and the class of persons concerned in the murder of Rosenthal.

There was evidence that he had been a recipient of money paid by gamblers for protection.

That charge was directly made by Rosenthal, and Rosenthal had threatened to expose him.

There was not a particle of evidence of that nature in the Frank case, nothing tending to establish an antecedent probability of guilt.

All the known facts and circumstances, indeed, were against that theory; made it even seem improbable and unreasonable.

Those who take to themselves the responsibility for whatever public clamor there may have been during the Frank trial in Atlanta can get neither justification nor comfort from comparison with the Becker case.

ROSSER RETURNS.

Attorney Luther Z. Rosser arrived in Atlanta from New York, where he is understood to have been gathering evidence on the Frank case, shortly after 1 o'clock Saturday afternoon.

He went straight to his office, refusing to discuss his trip or the resentencing of Frank until later in the day.

Herbert Haas, another attorney of Frank, who went to New York with Mr. Rosser, did not return with him.

Mr. Haas will not arrive in Atlanta until Monday, it is said.