The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-05-10
Sentenced to Hang June 22 for
Mary Phagan Killing.
Condemned Man Reiterates He
Has No Guilty knowledge.
SUFFERS FOR ANOTHER'S DEED
Points Out Review of Case Was
Barred by Court.
Appeals Made on Technicali-
ties, Not on Facts.

Atlanta, May 1O.-Leo NJ. Frank to-
day was re-sentenced to be hanged on
Tuesday, June %, for the murder OF
Mary Phagan, factory girl. Sem
tence was passed by Judge Ben H. Hill
of the Fulton county superior court.
Mary Phagan was killed on April 26.
1913. Before sentence was pro-
nounced, Frank made n statement to
the court reiterating his declarations
of innocence. He said:
Again 1 stand before you. Again I
can but reiterate that 1 am innocent
of the murder of Mary Phagan.
have absolutely no guilty knowledge
of that tragic occurrence.
Records Prove Innocence.
II am innocent of this charge and
L assert that the record of the evidence
conclusively proves this. No appel
late tribunal has ever passed upon this
evidence. The only judge who has
ever heard it, stated that he had the
most serious doubts as to my guilt.
MY execution will not avenge Mary
Phagan's death, a life will have been
taken for a life, but the real culprit
will not have paid the penalty. 1 will
suffer for anOther's crime.
MY trust in God, who knows that
my protestations of innocence are the
truth. At some future date the whole
mortal world will realize 1t. 1t is the
knowledge that God knows it now and
that inspires me as stand before your
honor and as / face the future.
Anything else 1 might say at this
time would be but an elaboration of
my words to the court. Yet l am fully
alive to the fact that my position Is
most precarious. 1t is a situation
which is so far removed from any
thing that my life and mental attitude
could have bespoken. 1t is hideous
but at the same time SO unreal. SO
inCOuPruOuS
Natural to Want to live!
'It is fundamental in human life to
want to live. This desire to exist is
ingrained in all of us--it is the basic
morality of all who live. To those
who have the proper ideals of living.
life without honor is insufferabIe.
This is the message of theology and
ethics.
I'm the light of the whole truth
know-and the Almighty knows-that
the morality of my position in this
case is unassailable.
This being so, my complete exon
Grafton of this terrible charge lies in
the future. When that day arrives. L
shall be vindicated-and If / am alive
1 will be enabled to enjoy freedom and
honor
Therefore, / want to live The full
truth and all of the facts in the case
they WILL will prove to the world that
my assertion of innocence is the truth.
THE legal arena is closed to me.
The bar is placed forever against fur
ther legal process. Yet the issue or
guilt or innocence has been before but
one court, that in which the jury sat.
All subsequent appeals were made
upon alleged legal and judicial errors.
not upon the facts or the evidence
Since the jury heard the case. no court
of inquiry or review has sifted the ev-
idence. No decision of any appeals
court undertook to predicate an opiB-
ion on the record of the testimony and
evidence. The doubt of the trial Judge
of my guilt still remains
Left to right, top: Judge l.. s.
Mary Phagan and Solicitor General
Hugh McDorSey, who prosecuted
Frank. Bottom: Mrs Leo Frank, Mrs.
j. w. Coleman, mother of Mary
Phagan, and Leo Frank.
Rarely in the history of American
criminal Jurisprudence has the entire
nation been so thoroughly aroused
IDLY a majority of the people believe
Frank guilty of the murder of Mary
Phagan. B ut from all over the nation
here has poured into Atlanta "A flood
IF protest and opinion that Frank is
innocent.
27, 1913, the body of Mary Phagan,
fourteen-year-ol girl. was found in
he basement of the pencil factory of
which Frank was the superintendent
)y Newt Lee, the negro night watch
nan. Marks on the throat indicated
,he had been stranglcd. Two notes
'ound beside the body, alleged to have
been written by the girl, said she was
he victim of criminal assault.