Friday, 6th March 1914: To Sentence Frank Saturday, The Atlanta Georgian

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HAPPY OVER NEW ALIBI EVIDENCE

Woman Tells of Seeing and Speaking to Prisoner at Alleged Time of Crime.

Death sentence will be pronounced upon Leo Frank Saturday, according to reports circulated Friday at the Court House by County officials.

Secrecy as to the exact time the prisoner will be brought before Judge Hill has been maintained, and it is impossible to say whether Frank will be taken from his cell in the Tower early in the morning or in the afternoon after court business is over.

Luther Z. Rosser, chief of counsel for the convicted man, was expected to return Friday from his trip to New York and Washington, and probably will be in court, with his associate counsel, Reuben R. Arnold, when sentence is reimposed.

Not to Ask Life Sentence.

Frank's attorneys will make no effort to have the sentence changed from death to life imprisonment, it is understood, although rumors to this effect have been in circulation for some time.

The Solicitor will ask for the death sentence and will hold that the judge has no alternative, in view of the provisions of the Georgia code and the decision of the Supreme Court. It is the purport of the law, according to the Solicitor, that the life of Frank still is under forfeit to the State, and that Judge Hill's only function is to set the date when the prisoner shall give up his life on the gallows. The court is known to agree with him.

Few spectators will be in the courtroom when the date for the execution is set.

Frank will be taken from his cell without announcement, hurried to the court of Judge Hill in an automobile, and there hear the sentence of death passed upon him. It will be the second time that he has listened to the briefly-worded but dramatic pronouncement, the first time being August 26, the day after his conviction, when he was taken before Judge L. S. Roan.

Pores Over New Affidavits.

Intimation that the defense of Leo M. Frank has other evidence fully as important as the affidavit of Mrs. Ethel Harris Miller, of Chattanooga, who has sworn that she saw Frank at the corner of Alabama and Whitehall streets at 1:10 o'clock on the afternoon of the murder of Mary Phagan, was given by attorneys for the condemned man Friday. The time for re-sentencing Frank was still being kept secret Friday.

Frank puts much hope in the time alibi as the basis of the new fight in which he and his lawyers expect to demolish the chain of evidence that convicted him in his first trial.

In his cell Friday, Frank pored over the affidavits of Mrs. Miller and Meir Lefkoff, made last September and since then reposing in the arsenal of the defense.

"All I can say is, they substantiate my own version of the time in every particular," he said. "I left the office at 1 o'clock. I walked down to Jacobs' drug store, at the corner of Whitehall and Alabama streets. I waited there for my car."

"These affidavits say I was seen there at about 1:10 o'clock. That coincides with my recollection. Mrs. Miller says I raised my hat to her. I recall that I did so. I did not say that at the trial, as it was a circumstance that had escaped my memory. There is nothing odd about that. I recalled very distinctly how she was dressed, and there is no particular reason why I should have said I raised my hat as I spoke to her. That is an action so involuntary that it does not furnish what is called an 'independent recollection.' It is one of those things that, called to mind by another circumstance, are readily remembered. I certainly remember it now."

Gratified by Aid to Alibi.

Frank said he was gratified to have additional testimony to his alibi statement.

"I never could understand why it was not convincing at the trial," he said. "It surely was as stable evidence and as cohesive as such evidence can be without being framed up. I believe this additional testimony will make it supremely positive."

"The affidavit of Mrs. Miller," said Attorney Leonard Haas, of Frank's counsel, "is one of the strongest links in the chain of evidence with which we are establishing an alibi. It corroborates in every detail the testimony of Miss Minnie Kern, who swore at the trial that she saw Frank at the same place at the same time."

"It proves conclusively that Frank was not at the factory at the time Jim Conley says he murdered the little Phagan girl. Mrs. Miller's affidavit will form one of the strongest contentions that we will present to Judge Hill in the motion for a new trial, and there undoubtedly will be other evidence presented that will bear out and strengthen the alibi which we regard as proven."

Verifies Girl's Testimony.

Mrs. Miller's affidavit is Friday's sensation in the Frank case. It is conceded to have important bearing on the case, inasmuch as it verifies to the minutest detail the testimony of Miss Minnie Kern, who was an important witness during the trial. In addition to Mrs. Miller's affidavit, the defense also has one made by Maier Lefkoff, who swears that Mrs. Miller was on the corner of Whitehall and Alabama streets at the time she claims. Lefkoff says that he does not know whether he saw Frank, as he is not acquainted with the accused man.

Mrs. Miller's affidavit was sworn to before Leonard Haas several months ago but has been withheld by the Frank defense as an "emergency weapon." Mrs. Miller now lives in Chattanooga at No. 502 Poplar Street, but at the time of the murder of Mary Phagan, she was living in Atlanta.

In her affidavit, she says that on the afternoon of the murder, she went to the J.P. Allen store on Whitehall Street in company with Mr. Lefkoff to meet her sister, Miss Florence Harris, who is employed there. She swears that she met her sister about 1 o'clock and that the trio then walked down Whitehall to Alabama and up Alabama to Forsyth Street, where they caught a Magnolia Street car home.

"When we reached the corner of Whitehall and Alabama streets," Mrs. Miller's affidavit says, "I saw Mr. Leo Frank standing on the corner, and I spoke, and Mr. Frank bowed and raised his hat. My sister does not know Mr. Frank, and of course, does not know whether she saw him or not. This happened between 1:00 and 1:10 o'clock."

Went to Meet Sister.

In a statement issued shortly after her affidavit became public, Mrs. Miller gives a more extended account of her movements on the day of the murder, when she swears she saw Frank standing on the corner. April 26 was Memorial Day, a holiday, and she says her sister was released from the day's work at the Allen store promptly at 1 o'clock. She says that she, her sister, and Mr. Lefkoff walked without delay down Alabama Street and up to Forsyth, and that allowing for all possible interruptions and delays, it could not have been later than 1:10 o'clock when she reached Alabama and Whitehall and saw Frank standing on the corner.

"I remembered the incident later," said Mrs. Miller, "and after the negro Conley's testimony came out, my sister and I went to the Allen store and looked at the time machine. It showed that my sister had 'punched out' at exactly 1 o'clock, which verifies my belief that it could not have been later than 1:10 when I saw Mr. Frank. The Allen store is less than a block from Alabama and Whitehall streets."

The New Affidavit.

Mrs. Miller's affidavit, in full, follows:The State vs. Leo M. Frank. Personally appeared Mrs. Ethel Harris Miller, who says that she is a resident of Chattanooga, Tenn.; that she formerly lived in Atlanta until she married; that she is acquainted with Mr. Leo M. Frank; that on April 26, Memorial Day, of this year (1913), I met my sister, Florence Harris, who works at J.P. Allen's, in front of the store, which is in the middle of the block of Whitehall Street, between Hunter and Alabama streets; that it was about 1 o'clock when I met her there. When I met her, we walked down Whitehall Street until we got to the corner of Forsyth and Alabama streets, where we caught the Magnolia street car home. When we reached the corner of Alabama and Whitehall streets, I saw Frank, and I spoke to him, and Mr. Frank bowed and spoke to me, tipping his hat. It was between 1 o'clock and 1:10 when I saw him at the corner of Whitehall and Alabama streets. My sister, Florence, and Mr. Maier Lefkoff were with me when I saw Mr. Frank. My sister, however, does not know Mr. Frank, and of course, did not recognize him. I do not know whether Mr. Lefkoff knows Mr. Frank or not.

ETHEL HARRIS MILLER

The Lefkoff Affidavit. The Lefkoff affidavit is as follows: State of Georgia vs. Leo M. Frank. Personally appeared Maier Lefkoff, who, on oath, says that on April 26, 1913, he accompanied Mrs. Ethel Harris Miller when she went to meet her sister at J.P. Allen's on Whitehall Street, between Hunter and Alabama streets. We arrived at Allen's about 1 o'clock, perhaps five minutes after one. We walked down Whitehall Street toward Alabama and turned up Alabama Street. I should say we reached the corner of Alabama and Whitehall streets at about 1:10, as we made no stops between J.P. Allen's and that point. I do not know Mr. Frank.

MAIER LEFKOFF

Chattanooga dispatches Friday said Mrs. Miller is the wife of Harry Miller, a well-known and reputable businessman.

Indications that Solicitor Dorsey is preparing his fight against the efforts of Frank's defense to secure a new trial for their client, and that the State expects to pay particular attention to the affidavit made by George Epps, the newsboy who testified during the trial for the State, is seen in a two-hour conference which Mr. Dorsey held with Detective John Black and George W. Epps, father of the boy.

Detectives Confer. Conferences have also been held recently with Detectives Starnes and Campbell, who were attached to the Solicitor's office during the investigation prior to the trial, and with Detective Bass Roser, who also worked on the case. The father of the Epps boy brands the story told by his son that Detective Black concocted the story he told on the witness stand as a lie. He declares his son told him the same story he told Black several days before he was approached by the detective.