Wednesday, 29th October 1913: Negro’s Statement Legal Evidence, He Says; State Closes, The Atlanta Georgian

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DORSEY DEFENDS CONLEY TESTIMONY

Making a determined stand in behalf of the admissibility bearing on that part of Jim Conley's testimony which had to do with Leo Frank's moral conduct, Solicitor Dorsey Tuesday afternoon neared the close of his argument in opposition to the motion for a new trial made by Frank's lawyers.

The Solicitor read numerous legal citations which enumerated cases where evidence of this nature had been admitted to show the likelihood of the defendant's guilt in respect to the charge for which he was on trial.

Mr. Dorsey touched briefly on Judge Roan's failure to charge the jury with the amount of credibility which might be given Conley's testimony, in view of the negro's admission that he repeatedly had sworn falsely.

He read the law to show that the mere failure of Judge Roan to make the impeachment charge, in the absence of a request by the defense, was not at all a sufficient ground for a new trial.

Dorsey closed his argument at 4:55 and the State's case rested.

Solicitor Dorsey startled the court by the declaration that if Judge Roan reversed the Frank verdict on the grounds of prejudice or bias, that Henslee and Johanning, the jurors accused of unfairness, should be given maximum sentences in the penitentiary.

"They deserve no better fate if it is true that their minds were warped with prejudice," declared the Solicitor.

"But no except my friends on the other side who are grasping at straws believe these charges on which Mr. Arnold dilated in three days of delirious rambling."

"Henslee is unimpeached; Johenning is unimpeached.

I do not believe that there is a man in Georgia from the Governor down who is a more conscientious and upright citizen that Johenning."

Dorsey continued his assault throughout the day on what he appeared to regard as the most important stronghold of the defense, the alleged bias of the two jurors.

In emphatic language he told the court that there was not a ground in the entire motion for a new trial that had a semblance of merit.

"The truth is, your honor," he said, "that they haven't any defense in this case, and haven't a tenable ground for this motion.

They are beating aimlessly around like a man snipe-hunting, hoping against hope that something will fly into their net."

Dorsey to Finish Wednesday.

"If your honor adopts the policy of taking the word of irresponsible persons against that of a man like Henslee or Johenning, you are taking every protection away from the State and making it easy for red-handed murderers to go free."

"The people were not aroused against Leo M. Frank because he is a Jew," the Solicitor said, "but because he is a criminal.

In the name of the Gentiles of Atlanta, in the name of a community which the learned counsel for the defense declares was carried away with malice and a thirst for blood,' I challenge anyone to show me where anyone cried, Hang Frank!

Lynch him!'

or made any remark that could be taken as an expression of personal hatred.

The counsel for the defense when they charge the jury with a display of mob spirit,' are not making personal accusations against any of these men. They are slandering the citizenship of the community."

As to Cheers for Dorsey.

"It is true that the people in the streets did holler for me, but that shows nothing. Because the people, for some reason or other, saw fit to cheer for me, the counsel for the defense has chosen to warp it and construe it into a demonstration against Frank."

They might as well contend that when some people applaud the hero in a melodrama, and hiss the villain, that they are applauding the man and not the part; that they are hissing the man and not the part.

The people have a right to come to the courthouse: they have a right to cheer whom they please.

If they want to cry that cheering for your me in persecution of Frank because he is a Jew, let them do it.

"Their changes are an attack upon your honor (Judge Roan) as much as they are an attack upon me and the members of the jury. They combatted your rulings all during the trial.

They said they would move for a mistrial, and they did. And your honor overruled them.

Your honor was sworn to give Leo Frank as impartial trial, and yet on every point up jumped Rube Arnold, like a chattering jack-in-the-box, like someone was working him on a string.

A. H. Henslee, your honor, was not attacked more as a man than your honor was as a judge."

Discusses Henslee Affidavit.

The Solicitor read and discussed in detail the affidavit of A. H. Henslee, the juror around whom the fight for a new trial has centered, which has appeared in print many times.

He called attention to the fact that Henslee denies specifically every instance in the affidavits charging him with prejudice and bias, where he is quoted as expressing an opinion as to the guilt of Frank.Didn't Hear Cheering.

Solicitor Dorsey also dwelt for a considerable length of time on the affidavits of Henslee and the other jurors that they had not, during the trial, heard any of the cheering, except what was heard in open court and which was instantly reproved by Judge Roan.

He declared also that at no time during the trial did any member of the jury betray an undue interest for or against Frank, and declared that he challenged Frank's attorneys to cite an instance where such an occurrence took place.

"It is highly improbable," the Solicitor declared, "that this controversy could have happened at the Elks' Club, granting that it could actually have happened at all, because the Elks' Club has more Jewish members than any club in the city, with the exception of the solely Hebrew clubs.

And surely Henslee has enough refinement of character to keep to himself whatever opinion he might have of a certain race."

PAGE 5, COLUMNS 1 & 7

PAGE 5, COLUMN 1

ROSSER BEGINS FINAL FRANK

PLEA PAGE 5, COLUMN 7

DEFENSE ATTORNEY IS UNSPARING IN ATTACKS ON DORSEY AND POLICE

Final argument in behalf of a new trial for Leo M. Frank was begun Wednesday in the library of the State Capitol by Luther Z. Rosser, chief of counsel for the convicted man.

He intimated before he started his address that he was going to handle with rough hands the manner in which Solicitor Dorsey and the detectives had conducted the Phagan murder investigation and he had not proceeded far before he had made good his threat.

"If the Solicitor thinks that I am going to pass over his illegal and unfair conduct without comment, he is greatly mistaken," said Rosser.

"if he imagines that he can violate the law which he is sworn to enforce and support and then escape without criticism from me, he has failed utterly to appreciate my standpoint in the matter."

"I don't intend to be offensive. I don't propose to criticize unjustly, but where the interests of this man at the Tower have been jeopardized by the unfair conduct of the Solicitor I certainly would not be serving him to the best of my ability if I ignored this feature of the case."

Rosser's introductory remarks were called forth by the sever structures that Solicitor Dorsey in the closing of his address to the court laid upon Attorney Reuben Arnold, who had preceded him and roundly had denounced the Solicitor and their detectives working with him.

Attacks Arnold Only.

"I am going to assume," said the Solicitor, "that Mr. Rosser does not propose to make such an unjust attack upon me, and therefore, I will confine my remarks to Mr. Arnold."

"You needn't assume anything of the kind," interrupted Rosser.

"You don't imagine that I am going to be bound by your assumptions, do you? I shall find occasion to criticize your illegal and unfair acts and I am willing to announce that at this time."

"Go ahead and say anything you wish; it doesn't make any difference to me," retorted the Solicitor, and turned his attention to the remarks which Attorney Arnold had made in the course of his argument."

"Through Mr. Arnold," he said, "the defendant in this case has charged us with all kinds of crimes and treasons.

I suggest that Mr. Arnold rid from his mind and heart all of this miasma and putrefaction with which his thoughts evidently are afflicted.

He can not be content with any mild remedial measure. His condition will require the most drastic treatment."

"If he will purge himself of some of the unjust suspicions, he has expressed he may regain much of the disinterestedness that goes with a proper perspective. He will regain the esteem of highly abused and much maligned public whom he has vilified without measure. Neither his whine nor his snort ever will do it. The public he has maligned knows well enough whether it is the prosecution or the defense that is clean."

"It is monstrous to assume that old John Starnes is corrupt and a cold-blooded headhunter.

I tis monstrous to assume that Pat Campbell and all the other detectives who worked on the case are corrupt; that all of us are corrupt and merely seeking to convict Frank because of our personal ambitions; that your honor has lost his head; that I have lost mine and that we are simply sending this man to the gallows irrespective of his guilt."

Jurors Are Defended.

"If Mr. Arnold will exercise a little abstinence from the money of Frank's poor Brooklyn relatives,' it may prove a good step toward gaining his erstwhile composure."

The Solicitor devoted practically the entire day to a defense of A. H. Henslee and Marcellus Johenning, the jurors charged by the defense with entertaining bias and prejudice toward the defendant before they were selected to sit on the jury.

Dorsey described this accusation against Henslee and Johenning as the only new phase which had arisen since the trial and, consequently, the only one which deserved any extended discussion, all the others had been settled once and for all when the evidence was offered and accepted and the jury returned its verdict of guilty.

PAGE 6, COLUMNS 1 ROSSER HAMMERS AT DORSEY PAGE 6, COLUMNS 7 SOLICITOR CRINGED AS MOB HOWLED FOR LIFE, SAYS FRANK'S LAWYER

Thundering forth invective upon invective against Solicitor Dorsey and his conduct of the prosecution of Leo M. Frank, Luther Z. Rosser, Frank's ponderous and pugnacious chief counsel, made an eloquent and impassioned plea for a new trial in the closing argument before Judge L. S. Roan Wednesday.

The little room of the library in the State capitol rung and resounded with his massive voice in its denunciation.

From time to time, he varied his sledge-hammer attacks upon the Solicitor with sharp thrusts of sarcasm, bitter irony and flashes of wit.

Classical illusions crept into the rough arguments and lightened and illumined them impressively.

Rosser graphically pictured the Solicitor as cringing and bowing and scraping to the mob that was crying for the blood of Frank.

He charged Dorsey with making malicious and totally unwarranted statements and insinuations against the defendant unwarranted statements and insinuations against the defendant and his friends.

In his picturesque verbiage, he repeated all the accusations of illegal procedure that previously had been made by Attorney Arnold.

The lawyer's address was prefaced by an emphatic denial that any "slush fund" had existed for Frank's defense.

"My friend Dorsey's words were charged with dirty insinuations that such a fund had been collected," said Rosser.

"He sneered at this mythical fund and the effort to lead the jury to believe that huge amounts had been gathered to save Frank from the gallows."

No Evidence of Fund.

"Much was said about the purchasing power of money without one line of evidence in support. All these statements were utterly, miserably and pitiably false."

"I do not regret that I am in this case. I never have regretted it. It has had its hardships, its heart-burnings and its drawbacks, but I do not regret that I am here."

"But so far from hordes of money coming from the four winds of the heavens, I assert that Mr. Arnold and myself are poorer-today because we ever heard of this case.

For six long months it has absorbed our life and our time, I'll open my books to any honest, decent man to show that this case has been a financial loss to me."

"My friend Dorsey asserted and it was so strange a thing to do that Mr. Arnold had attacked the whole public of Atlanta. Is that what Dorsey meant? If so, it was not true. Did he mean that Arnold criticized that mob that howled about the courthouse on that last day of the trial? If so, then make the most of it!"

"Did he mean that mob that he so cringingly represented? Then thank God that I don't represent them."

Crowd Not Representative.

"There were some people there, but they were not the people, not the public. Those people were screaming with delight and gratification because they thought the blood of a human being was to be shed. Is that the people' my friend Dorse so bows to?"

"When the question was up as to whether the revolting testimony of Jim Conley was to be admitted and when your honor permitted the filth to be poured into the record, there were some people who cheered and cheered that this filth was to cover the young man in the prisoner's chair. Is that the crowd that Dorsey so worships as every politician worships, I reckon."

"I say this: If Dorsey approves of all this and he's my officer as well as yours then he isn't fit for his job."

Praises Frank's Character.

Rosser reiterated his belief in Frank's innocence and said that he was as decent a man as the Solicitor ever was or as he himself and Arnold were.

"Through Mr. Arnold," said Solicitor Dorsey in his closing speech, "the defendant in this case has charged us with all kinds of crimes and treasons. I suggest that Mr. Arnold rid from his mind and heart all of this miasma and putrefaction with which his thoughts evidently are afflicted. He can not be content with any mild remedial measure. His condition will require the most drastic treatment."

"If he will purge himself of some of the unjust suspicions he has expressed he may regain much of the disinterestedness that goes with a proper perspective. He will regain the esteem of a highly abused and much maligned public whom h has vilified without measure.

Neither his whine nor his snort ever will do it. The public he has maligned knows well enough whether it is the prosecution or the defense that is clean."

"It is monstrous to assume that old John Starnes is corrupt and a coldblooded headhunter.

It is monstrous to assume that Pat Campbell and all the other detectives who worked on the case are corrupt; that all of us are corrupt and merely seeking to convict Frank because of our personal ambitions; that your honor has lost his head; that I have lost mine and that we are simply sending this man to the gallows irrespective of his guilt."

Jurors Are Defended.

"If Mr. Arnold will exercise a little abstinence from the money of Frank's poor Brooklyn relatives,' it may prove a good step toward gaining his erstwhile composure."

The Solicitor devoted practically the entire day to a defense of A. H. Henslee and Marcellus Johenning, the jurors charged by the defense with entertaining bias and prejudice toward the defendant before they were selected to sit on the jury.

Dorsey described this accusation against Henslee and Johenning as the only new phase which had arisen since the trial and, consequently, the only one which deserved any extended discussion, as all the others had been settled once and for all when the evidence was offered and accepted and the jury returned its verdict of guilty.

He made vigorous attacks on affiants who swore against the jurors, and ridiculed the idea that either of them had possessed any deep-seated prejudice before the trial.

The Solicitor doubted that they had made the remarks credited to them, but read law citations to show that even if they had, the fact did not furnish sufficient ground on which to upset the verdict of the jury.

Dorsey also defended Jim Conley's testimony on Frank's alleged conduct with women as perfectly admissible, again citing cases in which evidence of one crime had been admitted in the record for the purpose of establishing the probability that the defendant was guilty of the crime for which he was on trial.

PAGE 7, COLUMNS 1 & 8

PAGE 7, COLUMN 1

ROSSER BITTER IN CLOSING FRANK PLEA Judge to Reserve His Decision as to New Trial

PAGE 7, COLUMN 8

DENOUNCESSOLICITORIN FIERY APPEAL

Frank's Leading Counsel Accuses Dorsey of Cringing Before Howls of Mob.

Luther Z. Rosser hurled broadside after broadside Wednesday at Solicitor Dorsey in an effort to break down and destroy every vestige of the State's opposition to a new trial for Leo M. Frank.

He was expected to conclude early in the afternoon, when the case would rest with Judge L. S. Roan for decision.

Judge Roan said he probably would reserve his decision until Thursday or Friday.

Here are a few of the charges with which he assailed the State's attorney:

He described the Solicitor as reeking with unfounded suspicion and malevolence against Frank throughout the investigation.

He represented the Solicitor's insinuations of perjury against Miss Helen Kern, on the defense's witnesses, as the dirtiest and most contemptible piece of work he ever had encountered.

He charged that the Solicitor and the detectives either had locked up persons until they told the story the State wanted or else they branded them as perjurers on the stand.

He pictured Solicitor Dorsey as cringing, bowing and scraping to the mobs that howled for the blood of Frank.

He told the court that Dorsey poisoned and corrupted the minds of the jurors by unfounded insinuations, by extorted affidavits, by statements for which there was not a shadow of warrant in the evidence and by holding the fear of the mob before their eyes.

He characterized the imprisonment of Minola Mc Knight until she told the story the detectives wanted as the most outrageous violation of law on the part of the officers of the law that he ever had witnessed, and asserted that Detective John Starnes himself would have been locked up for his participation in the incident.

Scoffs Slush Fund.

He described the insinuations of Dorsey that there had been a "slush fund" for the defense of Frank as a miserable, pitiable and utterly unwarranted falsehood, the fact being that both he and Attorney Arnold were poorer to-day for having ever heard of the Frank case.

He alleged that the Solicitor had moved the jurors by vilification of Frank, vilification of Frank's mother and his wife, and by branding everyone as dishonest and a perjurer except the witnesses for the State.

He said that Dorsey was "daffy," or that his "intelligence was sleeping," if he was sincere in his declaration to the court that Frank had no defense, and that there was not a ground for a new trial.

He picked out what he regarded as the vulnerable points in the depositions of A. H. Henslee and Marcellus Johenning, and ridiculing them PAGE 13, COLUMN 1

ROSSER, DENYING SLUSH FUND, DECLARES FRANK'S CASE COST HIM MONEY Continued From Page 1.

with a torrent of biting sarcasm, declared that their inconsistencies and evident falsities "stunk to high heaven."

He introduced his throughgoing attack upon the Solicitor by the declaration that he still believed implicitly in the innocence of Leo Frank.

"As God is in the heavens above!" he exclaimed dramatically, "I believe that in yonder cell rests an innocent man as decent a man as my friend Dorsey ever was; as decent a man as I am; as decent a man as Arnold is.

If I had a hint of a doubt about it I'd take that brief book of mine and I'd depart forever out of this case."Smiles Are Forceful.

Rosser talked to the blunt, sometimes rough, language that has made his peculiar type of eloquence a byword of the Atlanta bar. He frequently used similes and metaphors that would not look well in print. They were, however, always forceful and apt.

PAGE 18, COLUMN 1

GRAND JURY WILL INSPECT CONVICTS

County Courts,

Idle for Weeks, Will Begin Grinding Again Thursday.

The courthouse which has been quiescent all week is due for a busy day Thursday when the Grand Jury meets for its final session and when Judge Calhoun's division of the Criminal Court convenes after a three-day rest.

A committee of the Grand Jury will visit several of the county institutions and convict camps Wednesday afternoon and make their report to the general session Thursday morning.

It is possible that the jury will make its report Thursday to Judge Ellis and be disbanded.

Monday morning the new Grand Jury will be organized and will find plenty of work facing it.

PAGE 30, COLUMN 3

PROMINENT MENIN NEW GRAND JURY LIST

The Fulton County Grand Jury for the November term will be organized next Monday morning by Judge Ellis.

It faces a heavy docket.

Whether Judge Roan grants a new trial to Leo M. Frank or not, Solicitor Dorsey and his assistant, E. A. Stephens, will forget that case for a while and busy themselves with cleaning up the cases which have developed during the time this famous trial has held the attention of the courts.

Thursday the present Grand Jury will meet to wind up its business and will be dismissed then or Friday morning.

An effort is being made to have its report completed by Thursday.

The new Grand Jury list contains the names of many well-known business men of Atlanta, among them being William L. Peel, president of the American National Bank; Frank Weldon, real estate, and Robert F. Shedden and William F. Manry, prominent insurance men.

Following are the men from whom the Grand Jury will be selected:

B. F. Pim, C. L. Defoor, College Park;

T. E. Camp, Bryants District; M. C. Strickland, W. F. Manry, Henry A. Coleman, Hapeville; John Aldridge; R. E. Richards, W. F. Patillo, W. C. Smith, No. 464 Luckie street; Sam D. Jones, Morton Smith, R. F. Shedden, J. M. Beasley, S. B. Scott, A. J. Mc Coy, East Point; J. T. Rose, Milton A. Smith, Charles C. Mayson, Buckhead; William L. Peel, Frank Weldon, J. D. Leitner, E. A. Hartscok, W. H. Mitchell, Oak Grove; W. T. Healey, Herbert M. Milam, C. J. Sullivan, Frank G. Lake, C. C. Mc Gehee, Jr., and S. H. Venable.