Arizona republican., 1915-04-20

Soon after the trial ended, the case came in for agitation which spread all over the country.
 Mary Phagan was murdered April 26, 1913, on a southern holiday in ob- servance of Confederate Memorial day Shortly after noon of that day she was seen to enter the pencil fac tory, in Atlanta, where she had been employed and where she went to ob- tain wages due her. Her body was found next morning in the basement of the factory, with a cord tied about the neck.
 Leo M. Frank, a young Jew. a col lege graduate and married, whose home had been in Brooklyn, N. Y, was superintendent of the pencil fac tory. Three days after the murder, Frank was arrested on suspicion and on May s, Frank and a negro watch man at the factory, Newt Lee. were held by the coroner for the grand jury's action. Lee subsequently, was released. Sixteen days later Jim" Conley, a negro sweeper at the fac tory, made confession to the police in which he accused Frank of having killed the Phagan girl and declared
 
 Conley, who was one of the chief wit nesses for the state at Franks trial, was convicted as an. accessory after the murder in February. 1914. and sentenced to one years Imprisonment. He began his term last July.
 Frank was placed on Hial in su- perior court July 2s. 1913, Judge L. s. Roan presiding. Judge Roan died m \ verdict of guilty was returned Aug death In his statement to the jury at the close of his trial Frank said he had seen Mary Phagan in his of flee in the factory a few minutes be- fore the time the state contended she was murdered; that he paid the girl her wages and that she left his office The theory of the defense has heen that Conley, who was about the building when the girl entered, and who had been drinking, attacked and killed the girl after she left Franks office
 In October, 1913, Franks attorneys filed a motion for a new trial, alleg- ing 103 errors in admission of testi- mony and conduct of the trial, and also charging that demonstrations by the crowd within and outside the court room during the trial had in terfered with fair verdict. Judge Roan denied the motion and the Georgia supreme court affirmed his action February r, 1914. A motion for rehearing of the appeal was de- nied by the state supreme court two weeks later.
 An extraordinary motion for new trial and a motion to set aside the verdict were filed simultaneously in superior court April 16, 1914. Among the grounds alleged in the motion for a new trial was that of newly dis covered evidence. The motion to set aside tht verdict was based on the ground that Franks constitutional rights had been violated by the trial court His attorneys alleged that Frank had not been given a fair trial because of the spirit of mob violence that pervaded the court room;' and also that his constitutional rights had been violated because Frank and his attorneys had been absent from the court room without Franks consent, when the verdict was returned. This absence, it was claimed, was at the request of the presiding judge, who was quoted as saying he feared mob violence against Frank and his law yers if verdict of acquittal were returned
 The extraordinary motion for a new trial was denied by the superior court May 6. and the decision was affirmed by the state supreme court October IA. The superior court on