Arizona republican., 1914-12-18
Georgia Justice

Leo M Frank, young business or Atlanta, Georgia. in all probability will be hanged Jan uary 2 for the murder in April of 1915 of Mary Phagan, young girl employed in factory of which he was the superintendent Every of escape for the condemned man appears to have been closed. Yet in every where his case has been presented for review, doubt has been ex- pressed to his guilt and everywhere, outside the state of Georgia. lawyers and others who have studied the case, divided into two camps those who believe in his innocence and those who are not satisfied to his guilt
 If Frank dies the scaffold he will be the victim of a judicial system, relic of crude sys- tenn which adopted in England when men began their struggle for freedom. In Georgia, than in any other state in this country this crudeness remains without modification. In that state. the of a jury. so prone error. may not be corrected questioned, though the of law may be-
 A jury may be swayed by the grossest preju- dice; it may be terrorized by an ignorant and un- thinking mob the Atlanta jury was; the jury may bring in verdict against the defendant with of sympathy for the victim and a conscious of his innocence doubt of his guilt. All this may be made clear and go undisputed to an appellate court but the court cannot interfere if the court below has not erred. The supreme of the United States recently dismissed a writ error in the Frank case though MT. Justice Holmes in giving the opinion expressed doubt of the guilt of Frank.
 Golfers Weekly has begun crusade in behalf of the doomed man, less, perhaps, with hope of saving him than with purpose to secure the re- modelling of the outrageous procedure by which he has been dragged toward the scaffod.
 The current issue of Golfers contains pains taking review, or rather a preliminary review of the case. The review will be concluded in the issue. 1t is conducted by eminent attorney who visited Atlanta and has explored every source of information. In the first place, the clean, blame less record of Frank from his boyhood, through Cornell University and his business to the day when the crime committed is established. It is shown that the conduct of Frank at the time of the discovery of the body of the girl in the basement of the factory and in the early days of the accusation, was that of innocent who had nothing to conceal The police set out with the purpose of fastening the crime upon Frank who admitted that he had the girl in his office. evidently but a short time before the murder. No body else was found who admitted seeing alive. The cinching testimony against Frank fur nished by a negro employe of the factory who at first denied he in the factory the day of the murder but after that he admitted that he there and he changed his story five times at last admit ting that he accessory after the fact He stated in one his stories that at least of the changes had been made at the instgation of the police who wanted it to fit their theory of the crime. .,pS-.,
 Then there the trial; such outrage upon justice in America is almost unbelievable. Yet it is described in the record, signed by the trial judge who admitted his doubt of the guilt of the defend ant Frank is Jew. That is the head and front of his offending. A outrageous thing could not have happened in Russia than that affair at Atlanta Georgia in the enlightened United States. The ritual murder trial of Mendel Bells at Kieff was more orderly than the trial of Frank and it farer
 The execution of Frank would cause great revulsion in the United States against capital pun ishment but that would be illogical the resolve of the toper never blow out lighted candle after he had been told that there danger that the flame would ignite the alcoholic fumes of his breath Whether Frank dies the scaffod or not there should be such a modernzation of the judicial sys fem that such outrages have already been com mitted would be impossible.