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PREFACE TO VOLUME TEN xi

When will our appellate judges recognize that their
duty ig to do justice, not simply to see that the judicial
machine is run according to rulef When will our
tribunals arrive at that very different point of view
of the English and Continental Courts? Not so long
as in American courts, Procedure is King; for while
the claims of this tyrant are respected, it matters not
what may become of Justice.

Frank now made his last appeal to the Governor of
the state in whom is vested the ancient prerogative
of the King—the power to pardon one unjustly con-
vieted or to mitigate a punishment which he finds too
severe, And the Governor of Georgia, after a patient
and exhaustive examination of all the evidence, was
of opinion that there was a reasonable doubt of his
guilt and that the jury had made a grievous mistake
in convicting bim. And it will be difficult to find an
unprejudiced reader of the evidence as set out in this
volume who will not agree with him. Conley’s story
seems a pure fabrication. Frank could not have com-
mitted the crime and disposed of the body in the time
alleged by the negro; it is utterly inconceivable that
the notes found near the body could have been dic-
tated by a man of Frank’s education; the Saturday
afternoon was spent by him in making up a compli-
eated financial sheet requiring hours of time, and Con-
ley admitted he was so drunk on that day that he did
not know where he was or what he did. The Gov-
Paris judge why this was so, and he replied it was on humanitarian
grounds, to spare the feelings of the prisoner. And whoever has
watched a man on trial for bia Hfe in an American court room and
has seen the awful strain the prisoner fa under while the jury is
filing into court and the Judge is preparing to put the question to
them as to what thelr verdict 1s, will appreciate the delicacy of the

French polnt of view, which thinks tt more kind to convey the re-
mult through his friends or lawyers in the quiet of the prison.

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