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The Atlanta Journal,

Friday, 12th December 1913,

PAGE 1, COLUMN 6.

Solicitor General Files Brief With Supreme Court, Pleading for Verdict Not Based on Technicalities

GREAT CASE TO BE HEARD NEXT MONDAY MORNING

Justices Probably Will Extend Time Limit for Argument,

Owing to Length of Court Records

A strong plea for substantial justice will feature the brief of the state in the case against Leo M. Frank, which will be filed with the clerk of the supreme court Friday.

The state s brief will plead in the main that if any error was committed in the long trial before Judge L. S. Roan, certainly no error really harmful to the defendant was committed, and the state s highest court is urged not to allow a minor technicality to undo the verdict of the jury which listened so many days to the evidence for and against the man it convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan.

Solicitor Dorsey s brief has not been printed.

It is much shorter than the brief of the attorneys for the defense of Frank, which will also be filed Friday, and much of it is devoted to a citation of authorities to support Judge Roan in admitting to the jury the Conley evidence relative to perversion and the alleged watching for Frank on days prior to the tragedy.

From a legal standpoint this is generally considered as the all-important phase of the case, for the lower court certainly would be reversed if the supreme court should hold that the trial judge erred in admitting this evidence.

The solicitor s brief, it is said, will devote little space to a refutation of the defense s criticism of Judge Roan for not granting a new trial because he was not himself, convinced of Frank s guilt, although supreme court decisions, holding that the judge does not have to be convinced if there is evidence to support the verdict, will be cited.

The solicitor general in his brief is also devoting little space to combatting the charge of the defense that a mob ruled the court room and was more responsible for the verdict than the sworn jury.

Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey and Attorney General Thomas S. Felder were working furiously on the state s brief Friday morning, hoping to complete it during the day, and a number of assistants were closeted in the attorney general s office with them.

The solicitor general commenced working on the brief only after the adjournment of the superior court, but since then he has been devoting many hours a day to it.

The Frank case is the first on the supreme court calendar for next Monday.

It is the custom of the supreme court to allow only two hours to the side for argument of cases, but it is generally expected that the attorneys for both sides will ask the court to allow additional time in this case.

It is probably the request will be granted because of the volume of the record in the case.

Friday, 12th December 1913: Dorsey Will Argue No Error Of Court Hurt Franks Case, The Atlanta Journal
atlanta-journal-december-12-1913-dorsey-will-argue-no-error-of-court-hurt-franks-case

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