Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-12-17
THINKS FRANK I
WAS NOT GIVEN
A FAIR TRIAL
H. katz of Bangor Was Eye
Witness in Georgia Court.

A Bangor man, Fl. katz, principal of
the Hebrew Institute of Bangor, was
an eyewitness of the Phagan murder
trial at Atlanta, Ga
He writes the Bangor News in regard
to the conditions there, as follows;
The United States Supreme court
has denied Franks application for
writ of error and Frank was again
taken to the court where sentence
should be passed upon him. In reply
to the usual questions by the court-if
he had any reason to give why SEN
tence should not be passed upon him
Frank made the following statement:
May it please your honor, this is a
momentous day-a day of far greater
importance to the State of Georgia to
the majesty of the law even than to
myself, for under the guise of law your
honor is about to pronounce words that
will condemn to death an innocent
man.
THE jury's verdict of August 25,
1913, finding me guilty of the death of
Mary Phagan did not then and does
not now speak the truth. l declare to
your honor and to the world that YER
dict was made in an atmosphere seeth-
ing with mob violence and clamor for
my life-a verdict based on evidence
absolutely false, (which under other
circumstances would not have been
given a moments credence.
4 deeply sympathlze with the par
ents of Mary Phagan. The brute that
brought so much grief upon them has
plunged me into sorrow and misery
unspeaka BILE, and is about to accom-
plish his doing.
But this | know, my execution will
mark the advent of new era in Geor-
gia, where a good name and stainless
honor count for naught against the
word of a vile criminal, where the test
imony of southern white women of UNI
Improbable character is branded as
false by the prosecution. disregarded by
the jury, and the perjured vaporings or
a black brute alone accepted as the
whole truth; where a mob crying
naught against the word of vile man
for blood invaded the courtroom and
became the dominant factor in what
should have been solemn judicial
trial. Oh, shame that these things be
true! 65
Life is very sweet to me. 1t is not
an easy thing to give up the love of
dear ones, of wife and parents, of ever
loyal friends. Though this be true,
death has no terrors for me. l go to
my end in the full consciousness of In.
nocence and in the firm conviction that
there is God in Heaven, my full vim
dication must come some day. With
the dawn of that day, there will come
to the people of Georgia full realiz-
alton of this horrible mistake, a mis-
take irretrievable, the execution of an
innocent man, victim of perjury,
prejudice and passion
The question as to whether Frank is.
guilty or not does not Immediately
concern me. though a recent article in
the current number of American Medi-
cine points out that a psychological
analysis of the case tends to show that
Frank did not murder Mary Phagan.
Every word and act in the accused's
life proves him to be perfectly normal,
physically and morally. The question,
which really deserves our consideration
is this: Did or did not Frank have
fair trial? I should not approach the
question purely from the standpoint of
a Jew by race. My own convictions are
not born of the fact that I am Jew.
They are dictated by the conscience Of
a man who is in harmony with the
universal progress of human civiliza-
ton.
L was in Atlanta at the time this
hideous murder of the IA year-old
girl was committed, and with impair
tial but opened eyes, l watched this
trial from its very beginning. I was
around the court house at the time the
jury found him guilty. The entire pro-
ceeding was one of passion. The pre-
siding justice himself feared an out
break and counselled his attorneys
that Frank should not be present at
the sealing of his fate. Enraged mobs
pressed into the court room defying
the jury to bring in any other verdict
but guilty. 1t was life they wanted;
blood they demanded. The jury could
not help but be persuaded and in
fiuenced by such clamor and public
opinion. / wonder what would have
happened If Frank had been tried by
a jury chosen in another part of the