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The Atlanta Georgian,

Sunday, 2nd November 1913,

PAGE 1, COLUMN 1.

Admission of Court In Denying New Trial That He Was Not Convinced Either of Guilt or Innocence Creates Sensation.

'Old Police Reporter' Finds Lawyers Who Believe Admission of Doubt Was Attempt to Right Judicial Wrong by Only Possible Means.

By an Old Police Reporter.

The speech of Judge L. S. Roan delivered when he refused to grant a new trial to Leo M. Frank has thrown the famous case "wide open," so to speak.

Incidentally it has served to deepen the mystery, which so many believed was solved in August when the jury returned a verdict against Frank.

A goodly number of those who did not make up their minds as to the guilt or innocence of Frank until the jury returned its verdict have had their minds unmade and are more settled than ever.

When the jury in August returned a verdict of "guilty" against Leo Frank, I purposely refrained from discussing that matter, either favorably or unfavorably, for I considered that the matter then had ceased to be a legitimate subject of newspaper comment, and I governed myself accordingly.

Similar View Held Before Trial Ended.

In one of the articles I wrote, as the Frank case drew very near to its close, there appeared this sentence:

"After all, has been said and done, and after listening as closely and as intelligently as I knew how, to all the evidence and all the arguments.

I still am unable to say to myself whether I think Frank innocent or guilty!"

That was more or less interesting to a number of people, perhaps, but as a promulgation of remarkable importance, considering its source, and so forth, it was not calculated to see the woods a-fire and it didn't!

Now, however, that Judge Roan, in denying Leo Frank a new trial, has seen fit to use PRACTICALLY THE VERY SAME WORDS that I used in my article, those words DO constitute a promulgation of the very highest and most far-reaching significance and importance and are the subject of perfectly legitimate and direct comment!

Judge Said He Had Not Been Convinced.

In overruling the Frank motion for a new trial Judge Roan said:

"Gentlemen, I have given this question long consideration. It has given me more concern than any other case I ever was in.

And I want to say here that, although I heard the evidence and the arguments during those 30 days, I do not know this morning whether Leo Frank is innocent or guilty."

"But I was not the one to be convinced. It appears that the jury was convinced and I must approve their verdict and overrule the motion."

Maybe that was a mistake maybe the judge should not have said that but it reads to me like the outpouring of an honest opinion.

Just that, and nothing more.

Judge Roan plainly did not feel that he should upset the verdict recorded, and yet he was NOT willing for it to stand with even the appearance of this unqualified approval!

Perhaps he thought he had the choice of two evils before him, and chose the one he believed to be the lesser.

One may well dismiss from his mind all opinion and feeling in that matter, and look the situation square Continued on PAGE 7, COLUMN 1.

PAGE 20, COLUMN 1

Continued From Page 1.

ly in the face, that he may take counsel with himself and see just where he stands ins respect to the Frank case, now that it has taken another astonishing turn.

Doubt Still Exists In Mind of Court.

The Supreme Court will pass upon the legality of Frank's trial, if error has been committed anywhere.

The highest court of review in the State may be depended upon to right all wrongs, I think.

Whatever Judge Roan's judicial and legal attitude may have been, and however much he may have felt constrained to uphold the verdict in spite of his own doubts concerning its righteousness, the FACT REMAINS and here is the point about which EVERYTHING centers that there is a DOUBT in his mind, a gnawing, insistent, and fretting and reasonable doubt.

AND IF THE TRIAL JUDGE FRANKLY ENTERTAINS SUCH A DOUBT, SURELY ORDINARY LAYMEN WILL BE JUSTIFIED IN ENTERTAINING IT!

Little Evidence on Charge of Perversion.

If Leo Frank is guilty, the extreme penalty of the law is his just portion I have said that repeatedly, and I reassert it now.

Mary Phagan was murdered diabolically and an indictment says Leo Frank murdered her.

Did he?

The judge who tried him who heard EVERY WORD of the evidence, and EVERY WORD of the argument is in doubt about it.

That is a solemn and intruding thought!

Remember, the heart and soul of this Frank conviction is the story of the negro, Jim Conley.

Evidently, the doubt or doubts in the mind of the presiding judge arose from his uncertainty as to the credibility of the Conley recital and that, even though, and perhaps mistakenly, he admitted it all in testimony!

Attempt Is Seen to Right Judicial Wrong.

There are very many lawyers in Atlanta, with some of whom I have talked recently, who see in Judge Roan's comments upon the case an effort to right a Judicial wrong through the instrumentality of the only legitimate weapon at hand.

But, as I said before, the judicial error, if there was one, may be left to the higher court it is the present admitted DOUBT in the judge's mind that haunts and gives pause to fair minds.

You who say "Leo Frank murdered Mary Phagan!"

How do YOU know it?

Did you hear the evidence?

The trial judge heard it, every word of it AND HE WAS NOT CONVINCED!

Turn which way one will mentally he runs sternly afoul of that towering circumstance and it shakes to the foundation stones the entire structure upon which Frank's guilt apparently has seemed to rest, as a legal proposition!

Is Leo Frank guilty?

In the earlier articles I wrote I said I did not know, that there was no way apparently whereby I COULD know!

In the very last article I wrote I said the same thing.

And now the judge who tried the case says the thing I repeatedly have said, and still say!

Discussion of Judge's Ruling Delicate Task.

The matter of discussing a judge's ruling is one of delicacy.

I appreciate that.

If God Almighty, however, can lay down the doctrine that it is better for a hundred guilty men to escape than that one innocent man suffer, surely I can afford not to dispute His word!

And yet I hope that the murderer of little Mary Phagan may be brought to justice that his guilt may be established BEYOND ALL QUESTION particularly beyond a doubt in the mind of THE JUDGE WHO TRIES HIM AGAIN, if ever he be tried again!

For if a doubt assails the mind of the man who must pass sentence upon Frank, how shall I reconcile MY inconsequential mind to the present status of Leo Frank?

And so, after all, it gets back to the nub of the entire situation, as it now exists.

It is the DOUBT in the mind of the judge who tried Leo Frank the DOUBT, frankly and outspokenly confessed that matters supremely now.

PAGE 2, COLUMN 1

FRANK CASE TO SUPREME COURT;

NEW TRIAL DENIED

Prisoner Unshaken, but Wife Becomes Hysterical When Told Court Had Rejected Motion.

Appeal To Be Filed This Week.

Judge Roan, Worn by Ordeal,

Admits in Decision He Still Is Not Thoroughly Convinced, but Refuses to Overrule Jury Verdict.

The fight for the life of Leo Frank, checked only momentarily by the decision of Judge Roan Friday refusing the convicted man a new trial, has been resumed by the attorneys for the defense.

Plans were well under way Saturday for an appeal to the Supreme Court of Georgia, and the bill of exceptions and other documents of appeal probably will be filed with the higher court early this week.

Plainly chagrined by their failure to obtain a new trial through appeal to Judge Roan, Frank's lawyers would say nothing yesterday concerning their plans or hopes, except that they are as determined as ever in the fight, and would appeal immediately from Judge Roan's decision to the Supreme Court.

However, it is gathered from the talk of men who are close friends to Frank that considerable hope is held out for the prisoner in the statement by Judge Roan that he was not convinced of Frank's guilt.

This statement is a part of the records that will go to the Supreme Court in the last desperate effort to save Frank's life.

Judge Worn by Ordeal.

Judge Roan, announcing his decision, revealed a countenance worn with troubled thought.

The trial had been comparatively a simple ordeal.

This aftermath, this appeal for a new trial, with the decision resting with him alone, was plainly trying.

He pondered much, as his first words showed:

"Gentlemen, I have thought about this case a great deal," he announced "I have thought about it more than any other case I ever have tried.

Gentlemen, I am not certain of this man's guilt.

With all the thought I have put on the case, after hearing all the evidence, I am not thoroughly convinced that Frank is guilty or innocent.

But I do not have to be convinced.

The jury was convinced.

There is no room to doubt that.

The jury was convinced.

There is no room to doubt that.

Gentlemen, I feel it is my duty to order that the motion for a new trial will be overruled."

Hardly were the words out of his mouth than Luther Rosser, for the defense requested that he not resign from the Superior Court bench until the appeal to the Supreme Court had been made.

At the same time the lawyer asked that Judge Roan's preliminary statements concerning his doubt be made a part of the record.

Solicitor Dorsey entered an objection, but the judge ruled that it might be recorded.

Frank Retains His Poise.

Leo Frank was in the Fulton County Tower when the decision was announced.

With him was his wife and several close friends.

Informed that he had lost in another fight, and that the gallows loomed more menacingly than before, Frank lost none of the calm that has marked his demeanor from the very first.

To friends he said placidly that he had not expected a new trial from the lower court, but that he was confident his cause would be successful when appealed.

Mrs. Frank, however, was overcome by the news.

She fell into a fit of wild sobbing, and would not be comforted.

It was as if she considered all hope gone.

Shortly afterward, she left her husband's cell and was taken home, still in a frenzy of grief.

Mr. and Mrs. Selig, Mrs.

Frank's mother and father, were with her.

It will require weeks, maybe months, for a consideration of the appeal by the State Supreme Court.

PAGE 3, COLUMN 1

MYSTERY OF PHAGAN CASE DEEPENED BY ADDRESS OF JUDGE ROAN

PAGE 1, COLUMN 1

Admission of Court In Denying New Trial That He Was Not Convinced Either of Guilt or Innocence Creates Sensation.

'Old Police Reporter' Finds Lawyers Who Believe Admission of Doubt Was Attempt to Right Judicial Wrong by Only Possible Means.

By an Old Police Reporter.

The speech of Judge L. S. Roan delivered when he refused to grant a new trial to Leo M. Frank has thrown the famous case "wide open," so to speak.

Incidentally it has served to deepen the mystery, which so many believed was solved in August when the jury returned a verdict against Frank.

A goodly number of those who did not make up their minds as to the guilt or innocence of Frank until the jury returned its verdict have had their minds unmade and are more settled than ever.

When the jury in August returned a verdict of "guilty" against Leo Frank, I purposely refrained from discussing that matter, either favorably or unfavorably, for I considered that the matter then had ceased to be a legitimate subject of newspaper comment, and I governed myself accordingly.

Similar View Held Before Trial Ended.

In one of the articles I wrote, as the Frank case drew very near to its close, there appeared this sentence:

"After all, has been said and done, and after listening as closely and as intelligently as I knew how, to all the evidence and all the arguments.

I still am unable to say to myself whether I think Frank innocent or guilty!"

That was more or less interesting to a number of people, perhaps, but as a promulgation of remarkable importance, considering its source, and so forth, it was not calculated to see the woods a-fire and it didn't!

Now, however, that Judge Roan, in denying Leo Frank a new trial, has seen fit to use PRACTICALLY THE VERY SAME WORDS that I used in my article, those words DO constitute a promulgation of the very highest and most far-reaching significance and importance and are the subject of perfectly legitimate and direct comment!

Judge Said He Had Not Been Convinced.

In overruling the Frank motion for a new trial Judge Roan said:

"Gentlemen, I have given this question long consideration. It has given me more concern than any other case I ever was in.

And I want to say here that, although I heard the evidence and the arguments during those 30 days, I do not know this morning whether Leo Frank is innocent or guilty."

"But I was not the one to be convinced. It appears that the jury was convinced and I must approve their verdict and overrule the motion."

Maybe that was a mistake maybe the judge should not have said that but it reads to me like the outpouring of an honest opinion.

Just that, and nothing more.

Judge Roan plainly did not feel that he should upset the verdict recorded, and yet he was NOT willing for it to stand with even the appearance of this unqualified approval!

Perhaps he thought he had the choice of two evils before him, and chose the one he believed to be the lesser.

One may well dismiss from his mind all opinion and feeling in that matter, and look the situation square Continued on PAGE 2, COLUMN 6.

PAGE 6, COLUMN 6

FRANK CASE WILL GO TO HIGH COURT IN MYSTERY

Continued From Page 1.

ly in the face, that he may take counsel with himself and see just where he stands ins respect to the Frank case, now that it has taken another astonishing turn.

Doubt Still Exists In Mind of Court.

The Supreme Court will pass upon the legality of Frank's trial, if error has been committed anywhere.

The highest court of review in the State may be depended upon to right all wrongs, I think.

Whatever Judge Roan's judicial and legal attitude may have been, and however much he may have felt constrained to uphold the verdict in spite of his own doubts concerning its righteousness, the FACT REMAINS and here is the point about which EVERYTHING centers that there is a DOUBT in his mind, a gnawing, insistent, and fretting and reasonable doubt.

AND IF THE TRIAL JUDGE FRANKLY ENTERTAINS SUCH A DOUBT, SURELY ORDINARY LAYMEN WILL BE JUSTIFIED IN ENTERTAINING IT!

Little Evidence on Charge of Perversion.

If Leo Frank is guilty, the extreme penalty of the law is his just portion I have said that repeatedly, and I reassert it now.

Mary Phagan was murdered diabolically and an indictment says Leo Frank murdered her.

Did he?

The judge who tried him who heard EVERY WORD of the evidence, and EVERY WORD of the argument is in doubt about it.

That is a solemn and intruding thought!

Remember, the heart and soul of this Frank conviction is the story of the negro, Jim Conley.

Evidently, the doubt or doubts in the mind of the presiding judge arose from his uncertainty as to the credibility of the Conley recital and that, even though, and perhaps mistakenly, he admitted it all in testimony!

Attempt Is Seen to Right Judicial Wrong.

There are very many lawyers in Atlanta, with some of whom I have talked recently, who see in Judge Roan's comments upon the case an effort to right a Judicial wrong through the instrumentality of the only legitimate weapon at hand.

But, as I said before, the judicial error, if there was one, may be left to the higher court it is the present admitted DOUBT in the judge's mind that haunts and gives pause to fair minds.

You who say "Leo Frank murdered Mary Phagan!"

How do YOU know it?

Did you hear the evidence?

The trial judge heard it, every word of it AND HE WAS NOT CONVINCED!

Turn which way one will mentally he runs sternly afoul of that towering circumstance and it shakes to the foundation stones the entire structure upon which Frank's guilt apparently has seemed to rest, as a legal proposition!

Is Leo Frank guilty?

In the earlier articles I wrote I said I did not know, that there was no way apparently whereby I COULD know!

In the very last article I wrote I said the same thing.

And now the judge who tried the case says the thing I repeatedly have said, and still say!

Discussion of Judge's Ruling Delicate Task.

The matter of discussing a judge's ruling is one of delicacy.

I appreciate that.

If God Almighty, however, can lay down the doctrine that it is better for a hundred guilty men to escape than that one innocent man suffer, surely I can afford not to dispute His word!

And yet I hope that the murderer of little Mary Phagan may be brought to justice that his guilt may be established BEYOND ALL QUESTION particularly beyond a doubt in the mind of THE JUDGE WHO TRIES HIM AGAIN, if ever he be tried again!

For if a doubt assails the mind of the man who must pass sentence upon Frank, how shall I reconcile MY inconsequential mind to the present status of Leo Frank?

And so, after all, it gets back to the nub of the entire situation, as it now exists.

It is the DOUBT in the mind of the judge who tried Leo Frank the DOUBT, frankly and outspokenly confessed that matters supremely now.

PAGE 20, COLUMN 1

JUDGE ROAN'S LAST ACT IN CIRCUIT COURT OPENS THIRD BATTLE BY FRANK

Certifies Bill of Exceptions Which Sends Famous Case to Supreme Court, Then Takes Appelate Bench Oath---Georgian's Story in Record.

As his last official act on the bench of the Stone Mountain Circuit, Judge L. S. Roan Saturday afternoon at 4:10 o'clock certified to the bill of exceptions by which the trial of Leo M. Frank, convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan will be taken for review before Supreme Court of Georgia.

Five minutes later the typewritten document of 71 pages had been filed with F. M. Myers in the office of the clerk of the Superior Court.

This marked the formal launching of the third great struggle to save the young factory superintendent from the gallows, a contest which already has been unexampled in this State for the brilliance of legal talent engaged, for the relentless ness with which the case has been prosecuted by the Solicitor, and for the desperate with which Frank's counsel have fought every move of the State's attorneys.

The Supreme Court virtually is the last stand for the defense.

There is, of course, the State Prison Commission and then the Governor of the State, to whom final appeal can be made in the event that the Supreme Court sustains Judge Roan, but it is unusual for Governor to go counter to the highest court of the State, when it has passed finally on the legality of a conviction.

The most that ordinarily done in cases of this nature is the granting of a commutation to life imprisonment.

Jubilant Over Court's Stand.

Frank's attorneys, however, are not at all dismayed by the prospects of a review of the legal points involved in the trial and conviction of their client.

They contend that Frank rightfully was entitled to a new trial on the errors they alleged crept into the trial and on the fact, as they claim, that the verdict of guilty was not warranted by the evidence.

They are jubilant over Judge Roan's admission that he was not certain, after listening to the evidence and arguments for 30 days, whether Frank was innocent or guilty.

Lawyers of the city have given the opinion that the Supreme Court, should it not care to pass on all of the points involved, could on Judge Roan's statement alone reverse him and order the defendant retired.

Supreme Court decisions are cited where Superior Court judges have been reversed for their statement to the effect the "court's verdict, if it were deciding the case, probably would have been different than that of the jury, but it is not the province of the trial judge to invade the jury box and therefore the motion for a new trial is overruled."

Calls Georgian Story Correct.

The Supreme Court has held, it is said by those familiar with the law, that it is the province and the duty of the trial judge, if he believes a verdict of guilty not warranted by the evidence, to set aside the verdict.

Judge Roan certified readily Saturday to the statement he had made in reference to his uncertainty, and it became a part of the bill of exceptions.

He acknowledged that The Georgian had quoted him accurately, and The Georgian's account of his remarks was used in the bill by agreement of the judge and counsel on both sides.

The bill recited that the defense would stand upon all its former grounds in asking for a reversal of Judge Roan.

The brief of evidence, the original motion for a new trial and the amended motion will go before the Supreme Court, together with the bill of exceptions.

The Clerk of the Superior Court has ten days in which to make copies of the documents in the case and file them with the Supreme Court.

The case then will be placed on the docket, probably for some date late in January or the first week in February.

Judge Roan, as soon as he had certified to the bill of exceptions, went to the State Capitol and was sworn in as a judge of the Appellate bench to succeed Benjamin Harvey Hill, who recently was appointed to the new judgeship of the Atlanta Circuit, to justice that his guilt may be established BEYOND ALL QUESTION particularly beyond a doubt in the mind of THE JUDGE WHO TRIES HIM AGAIN, if ever he be tried again!

For if a doubt assails the mind of the man who must pass sentence upon Frank, how shall I reconcile MY inconsequential mind to the present status of Leo Frank?

And so, after all, it gets back to the nub of the entire situation, as it now exists.

It is the DOUBT in the mind of the judge who tried Leo Frank the DOUBT, frankly and outspokenly confessed that matters supremely now.

Sunday, 2nd November 1913: Mystery Of Phagan Case Deepened By Address Of Judge Roan, The Atlanta Georgian

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