0593 Slide – Georgia Supreme Court Leo Frank Appeals Documents, 1913, 1914

Visible Translated Text Is As Follows:

I have seen cabbage less changed than that cabbage you exhibited to me (State's Exhibit G) that has remained in the stomach 18 hours. Bread and cabbage would not begin to pass out of the stomach until 1 1/2 to three hours. A blow on the back of the head could blacken the eye. It would be perfectly possible for the epithelium of the vagina to be ruptured by the fingers in making a digital examination it would be more liable to rupture ten hours after this than immediately before this. Decomposition destroys the epithelium. It is very delicate membrane. Decomposition develops very rapidly on much epithelium. In case of death by strangulation all the mucous membranes throughout the body are congested by blood. It is not unusual to find those blood vessels congested when death is by strangulation. In such a case I would expect to find congestion in the vagina, especially if the person had just had her monthly periods. Menses may be brought back by excitement. Violence would not be necessary to produce the conditions of congestion of the blood vessels that you have stated. The digital examination would be different sufficient violence to produce the changes in the epithelium that you have stated. The congestion of the blood vessels could be entirely accounted for by natural causes, or from death by strangulation. If the epithelium stripped in some places and the blood vessels are found congested under microscope, there is no possible way to determine if violence had caused it instead of natural causes, unless there is a sign of bacterial inflammation. It would be impossible to tell how long violence was inflicted before death, where the body is interred nine days after death. I could not hazard a guess within two days of the time. I think I might in two weeks.
CROSS EXAMINATION. The amount of digestion in the mouth depends on the amount of mastication in the mouth. If the food is bolted there is no digestion. I am not familiar with Dr. Grittendon's table. If he states that boiled cabbage is easy to digest as raw cabbage he is at issue with the generally accepted authorities. Normal