334 Slide – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

302 XY. - AMERICAN STATE TRIALS,

the benches always stuck it out, but they was ecrewed to the
floor."’ You gentlemen have been practically in that fix, but
I feel, nevertheless, that you have been peculiarly kind, and
I thank you.

THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR THE STATE.

Mr. Dorsey. Gentlemen of the Jury: This case is not
only, as His Honor has told you, important, but it is extraor-
dinary. It is extraordinary as a erime—a most heinous crime,
a crime of a demoniac, e crime that has demanded vigorous,
earnest and conscientious effort on the part of your detectives,
and which demands honest, earnest, conscientious considera-
tion on your part. It is extraordinary because of the
Prominence, learning, ability, standing of counsel pitted
against me. It is extraordinary because of the defendant—it
is extraordinary in the manner in which the gentlemen argue
it, in the methods they have pursued in its management.
‘They have had two of the ablest lawyers in the country. They
have had Rosser, the rider of the winds and the stirrer of the
storm, and Arnold (and I can say it because I love him), sa
mild a man es ever cut a throat or seutiled a ship. They have
abused me; they have abused the detective department; they’
have heaped so mach calumny on me that the mother of the d2-
fondant was constrained to arise in their presence and de-
nounes me as a dog. Well, there’s an old adage, and it's
true, that says, ‘‘When did any thief ever feel the halter draw
with any good opinion of the law!”’ .

OK, prejudice and perjury! They say that is what this
ease is built on, and they use that stereotyped phrase until
it fatignes the mind to think about it. Don’t let this pur-
chased indignation disturb you. Oh, they ought to have been
indignant; they were paid to play the part. Gentlemen, do
you think that these detectives and T were controlled by preja-
dice in thie case? Would we, the sworn officers of the law,
have songht to hang this man on account of his race and
pass over the negro, Jim Conley? Was it prejudice when