The Atlanta Journal,
Monday, 10th November 1913,
PAGE 1, COLUMNS 1, 4, & 6.
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.