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The Atlanta Georgian,
Monday, 25th August 1913,
PAGE 7.
Solicitor Dorsey and Judge Roan Finish Speeches
LEO, FRANK ON HIS WAY FROM JAIL TO COURT
This photo was snapped as Frank left the Tower.
Frank always is nattily attired, and walks briskly from the auto which brings him from the tower to courtroom.
The accused never is handcuffed to the Sheriff, as are men considered desperate prisoners.
JUDGE REFUSES NEW TRIAL TO DEFENSE AS STATE CLOSES PLEA
The fate of Leo M. Frank, National Pencil Factory superintendent accused of the slaying of Mary Phagan is in the hands of the jury.
After four weeks of the greatest legal battle in the history of the South the case was given Monday at 12:49 to the twelve men who have been silent attentive listeners to the evidence for and against. The jury returned from dinner formally to begin its deliberations.
Atlanta and the State, and thousands in other States awaited the verdict with a tensity not equaled in any other criminal case in Dixie's annals: Those who believed that Solicitor Hugh M. Dorsey, whose work has been the sensation of the trial, had won his fight saw a good omen in the move of the defense for a mistrial.
The motion for a new trial was made by Attorney Reuben Arnold on the grounds that the evidence of perversion contained in Jim Conley's statement had been illegally allowed to stand on the records and that the jury had been subjected to improper influencing in the hearing of the crowds cheering of Dorsey on the street nearing the courtroom
Judge Roan denied the motion after Solicitor Dorsey in a brief but vigorous address branded the grounds as trifling.
The conclusion of the great trial attracted by far the greatest crowd since the opening and thousands failed to gain entrance to the scene of the legal combat. Special police, including a corps of mounted men, were at the scene trying to scatter the mass of humanity with but poor success.
Frank Hears Assault Without Quiver.
The silent prisoner in this most remarkable of tragic drama seemed as much the stoic as on any day of the ordeal. He listened to Solicitor Dorsey's renewed assaults, made impassionately and unsparingly, without a trace of fear or quailing showing on his face. He heard Judge Roan tell the jury that if the evidence convinced it, he could be sentenced "to hang by the neck till dead," without a flicker of an eyelash. He surveyed the obviously hostile crowd in the courtroom coolly. He looked somewhat sallower than on previous days, but his nerve was as remarkable as ever.
With his wife whose fortitude has been as astonish as his own except on one or two occasions, it was different. The approach of the end had apparently unnerved her. The woman who had steeled herself to hear her husband denounced as one of the greatest criminals in the history of the world, had heard him compared to the vilest in the Hall of Infancy, without a murmur of protest or a sign of remonstrance, broke down as the time came to put his life in the hands of "twelve good men and true." All during Judge Roan's solemn charge she wept on her husband's shoulder. The strain of the tremendous ordeal had been too much for her and the tears flowed unrestrained. Frank's mother did her best to soothe her.
Prisoner Taken Back to Tower.
When the case was delivered into the hands of the jury Frank was taken back to the Tower to the cell he has occupied since the closing days of April.
The jury before formally taking up its momentous task of arriving at a verdict went to lunch at the German Caf'e on Pryor street. Court, however, formally reconvened at 1 o'clock for the consideration of what evidence should be allowed to go before the jury. Judge Roan heard arguments by the lawyers for both sides. The most important decision was one made over the plea of Solicitor Dorsey ruling that all of Jim Conley's affidavits should be put before the jurors.
The argument over the documentary evidence to be submitted to the jury was long and heated. The fight was particularly over the affidavits of E. M. Holloway made to Dorsey and that of Minola Mc Night, cook in the Frank home, made to the police, and the statement Frank made at the police station the day of his arrest.
The Solicitor finally admitted that the affidavits of Holloway and Minola Mc Knight had not been submitted but said he would look up the records to determine if Frank's statement had been submitted.
Dorsey and Hooper Loudly Cheered.
When Solicitor Dorsey and Attorney Hooper left the courtroom where they were vociferously cheered by a tremendous crowd insisted on thronging about the courtroom.
Solicitor Dorsey finished his speech at 12 o'clock and for forty minutes the lawyers clashed over the defense's plea for a new trial, with the State finally victorious.
Judge Roan had finished delivering his charge at 12:45 o'clock. The Judge's charge made no effort to review the evidence in any way and did not attempt, of course, to explicitly define just what a reasonable doubt is except that it must be more than an official doubt.
The judge said the jurors could bring in with a verdict of clarity a recommendation that the prisoner be sent to the penitentiary for life.