Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-06-29
SLATON SAYS FRANK'S
COMMUTATTON RIGHT

Continued from Page One
the end Of all your ambitions and that
YOU would have to live in secIusion for
the rest Of your life?''
mo. moi" he replied III you read my
statement. from which those words were
supposedly quoted. you would understand
that was not the case What l said was
| that even n my action meant that l
would have to forego all hope OF future
political preferment, I nevertheless could
not have done otherwise than obey the
dictates of my conscience. That word
If.' YOU see, makes all the difference In
the world.
SILENT AS TO FRANKS INNOCENCE
did you commute the sentence Of
Frank because you believed he was In
nocent or simply because you considered
n reasonable doubt existed, and for that
reason the man should not be hanged3"
'I have never said whether OF not
believe Frank innocent | have not had
to. Franks attorneys asked simply that
| commute his sentence from death to life
imprisonment They did not ask me to
pardon him"
THE fact is that the only pody legally
authorized to hand down a decision as to
Franks guilt or innocence was the jury
that tried him. They said he was guilty.
But the law recognizes two penalties for
murder-life imprisonment and death.
The Supreme Court of Georgia and the
Supreme Court of the United States
handed down adverse judgments on APP
peals but not adverse judgments in the
matter Of Franks innocence. They simply
refused to sustain the arguments that he
had not had fair trial. The possibility
i. han nfff
vlcted by the jury in perfectly fair
tvial still remains"
why is II that in Georgia, where there
Is more prejudice against the Negro than
In other parts of the country in matter
In which IL was question of Negro YER
sus white man, the trend Of opinion To- |
cally should have been against Frank |
CIRCUMSTANCES AGAINST FRANK.
THAT is answered." slaton replied, "by |
what Is known as the hue and cry theory |
n legal nomenclature. Suspician first |
etted on Frank. Everything was
against him circumstantially. 1t was Il
TASTY crime-a child of 13 killed the way
he was. And naturally enough, resent
nent was tremendous against the perpe-
rator of II. The stage was so set that
frank looked absolutely guilty beyond O
question OF doubt There Is no need of
ioing into the Getails of the case,
But the fact remains that Frank was
apparently the only person who could
lave committed the crime for weeks. For
it was long, long time before
he public even realized that the Negro,
'onley, could read or was capable of writ
ng the notes that were a strong link in
he chain of evidence against Frank. AS
ar as 1 was concerned, it made no diff
erence to me whether II was Negro or
white man, or Lithuanian or Pole, or
armenian or American.
"It was the justice of the thing There
ave been times when 1 have called out
he militia to protect the life of Negro
knew was guilty OF the unspeakable
rlme, because l believe in law But l |
ould not see how man should be de-
rived OF his life and sent to eternity on
he testimony of q Negro who was a
roved criminal and who had served
numerous terms during three years in
he penitentiary."
Does the action OF the mob against
frank indicate that the lynch spirit is
ot so much a matter of race hatred as
matter of temperament peculiar to the
eople OF that section OF the country"
"Oh, no! No, nor cried Slaton. You
ave had the same spirit demonstrated
many times in the North as we'll as the
iouth.. Zach Walker was burned at