Monday, 10th November 1913: Supreme Court Refuses To Postpone Frank Hearing, The Atlanta Journal

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PAGE 1, COLUMN 1

PAGE 1, COLUMN 4

DETECTIVES

ARE PROBING

CAUSE OF GRAYS

DEATH

Member of

Coroners Jury Is

Not Satisfied With Verdict

of Accident

A member of the coroners jury which

investigated the death of S. A. Gray, the elevator operator who was killed in a

fall down the elevator shaft of the Austell building Saturday night, telephoned

to Chief of Police Beavers that he was not satisfied with the verdict of

accident and desired the chief to investigate. Chief Beavers refused to

divulge the mans name, but immediately assigned two detectives on the case

with instructions to report to him as soon as possible.

Gray met his death in a fall from the

ninth floor of the building to the top of the freight elector, six or seven

floors below. There were no witnesses and some degree of mystery surrounds the

case.

The body was taken to Sunnyside, Ga.,

Monday morning for funeral and internment.

PAGE 1, COLUMN 6

JUDGE

SPEERS HEARING

SET FOR NEXT

JANUARY

Illness of

Macon Jurist Causes

Delay in Trial of Charges

Brought Against Him

(By Associated Press.)

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10.Hearing of witnesses in the investigation

of charges of official misconduct against United States Judge Speer, of

Georgia, will commence on January 19 next. This decision was reached by the

house subcommittee on the judiciary today.

Taking of testimony originally was

scheduled to begin November 1, but the illness of Judge Speer led the committee

to postpone action until today, when it was agreed that a date should be set.

Representatives of the jurist said today that it was believed he would be able

to appear before the committee by the middle of next January.

The first testimony probably will be

taken at Macon, Ga., Judge Speers home, for the convenience of himself and of

other witnesses.

PAGE 1, COLUMN 7

STATE AND

DEFENSE

REQUEST DELAY IN

FRANK ARGUMENTS

Attorneys

Call at Supreme

Court and Ask That the Case

Be Put on January Instead

of December Calendar

POSTPONEMENT

IS DENIED;

CASE COMES UP DEC.

15

Friends of

Frank Plan to Urge

Police to Secure Confession

From Jim Conley After He Is

Sentenced as Accessory

The supreme court of Georgia Monday

daily denied what amounted to a joint request of the state and the defense to

postpone the argument in the Leo M. Frank case until the January term of the

court.

The rule of the court cannot be

varied, the clerk told the attorneys after the judges of the states highest

court had held a conference, and if the papers reach the court by December 1

the argument will be set for about December 15.

Another development of Monday in the famous

criminal case was the statement of many attorneys that after Jim Conley is

allowed to enter his plea Tuesday to the indictment charging him with being an

accessory after the fact of Mary Phagans murder he can never be tried for the

girls murder. Although at present it is believed Conley will be arraigned

Tuesday, it is possible that his arraignment may be postponed to later in the

week.

While there has been little probability

of Conleys facing a murder charge since the emphatic statement of Solicitor

Hugh M. Dorsey that the negro would never be tried for the capital crime while

he was in office, friends of Frank have always insisted that Conley was guilty.

With the accepting will enter a plea of guilty for him, however, all

possibility of his ever going on trial for his life is eliminated.

CONLEY TO PLEAD GUILTY.

Conleys attorney, William M. Smith,

will enter a plea of guilty for him Tuesday and it will then be up to the court

to decide whether Conley should be sentenced for a felony or a misdemeanor.

The maximum penalty which he can

receive, even if sentenced for a felony, will be three years. The maximum

sentence in all misdemeanor cases is one year. While the solicitor will not

discuss this phase of the case, criminal attorneys are of the opinion that

Conley will be sentenced for a misdemeanor. The matter will probably be left

largely to the solicitor to decide, as in cases where a plea of guilty is taken

the court is generally governed by the statements made by the prosecuting

attorney.

It was definitely learned Monday that

Attorneys Luther Z. Rosser and Reuben R. Arnold, who represent Frank, will make

no move to block the trial, or rather the plea of Conley. The attorneys for

Frank, while they have charged before Judge Roan that Conley is guilty of

murder, do not represent the state or the defendant, so they will take no part

in the proceedings.

COURT DECISION SURPRISES.

The action of the supreme court in

denying the application to postpone the Frank case caused considerable

surprise.

Monday morning Attorneys Rosser and

Arnold called upon the solicitor and asked if he would consent to a motion to

postpone the argument in the case until the January term of the supreme court.

He did consent and sent his assistant, E. A. Stephens, to the capitol with the

Frank attorneys to make the request of the supreme court.

The judges heard the plea informally in

chambers. The attorneys for the defense stated that on account of the extremely

voluminous record in the case and the fact that both of them will be engaged

most of the time in the lower courts during the next few weeks, that they would

like a postponement.

The assistant solicitor stated that Mr.

Dorsey will be engaged in the criminal division of the superior court

continuously until Christmas. He explained that the criminal docket is

extremely congested and that the jail is filled with prisoners waiting trial.

WILL BE ARGUED DECEMBER 15.

The judges of the supreme court, after

hearing from the attorneys for

(Continued on Page Three, Col. 4)

PAGE 3, COLUMN 4

STATE AND

DEFENSE

REQUEST DELAY IN

FRANK ARGUMENTS

(Continued From Page 1.)

both sides,

stated that they would give their decision in the matter in the course of a few

hours. Before noon Clerk Harrison called the attorneys and told them that the

judges had decided that the routine procedure could not be changed for the

case, and advised the lawyers that the case would come up for argument on or

about December 15, if the papers reached the supreme court by December 1.

The clerk of the superior court is

allowed by law only fifteen days in criminal cases to file with the supreme

court the records in appealed cases. Judge L. S. Roan denied Franks motion for

a new trial on October 31, and on the same day the record was turned over to

the clerks office. As a result, it must be filed with the clerk of the supreme

court by the 15th of this month. The law allows the clerk no longer than

fifteen days in criminal cases, regardless of the size of the record.

The denial by the supreme court of the

attorneys request means that they must rush the preparations of their briefs

in the case, which will themselves be very voluminous documents, the

preparation of which is very tedious.

There is no set rule in the supreme

court as to how long after a case is argued that it is passed upon by the

tribunal, but it is usually thirty and sixty days.

Franks

Friends Will Try

To Get Conley to Confess

Friends of Leo M. Frank asserted Monday that after Jim Conley

enters his plea of guilty as an accessory after the fact of the Phagan murder

and is sentenced for the offense they will endeavor to induce the police to

make an effort to secure a confession from the negro.

Conley, they point out, will then be immune from further

prosecution himself, and if his testimony against Frank was a lie framed up by

the negro to protect himself, there can be no reason for his carrying it any

further.

The negro has been in close touch with his attorney, William

M. Smith, and is said to fully realize that after his plea is entered that he

is safe, and could confess to murder without fear of prosecution.

Franks friends will point out to the

negro that if he is really guilty that there is absolutely no reason for him to

allow an innocent man to hang and thus have a second crime upon his head, as

after he has been sentenced as an accessory he will be perfectly safe from the

law.