0877 Sheet – Supreme Court Georgia Appeals of Leo Frank, 1913, 1914

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not give to sustain their opinions individual and isolated experiments but must answer from their knowledge of the science obtained from all sources, that . . .
"Knowing the facts that cabbage would pass out of the stomach very quickly in a normal one I ascertained here digestion, and as soon as I saw the cabbage in this case, I at once felt certain that the girl either came to her death or possibly the blow on her head at any time, perhaps three quarters of an hour or half an hour or forty minutes, or something like that, before the stomach of the girl began a number of experiments with some gentlemen who had normal - I did with a view of judging of the time. people with absolutely normal stomachs, and some cabbage, and it was given to their stomachs.
"I will state in general terms there were only four persons experimented upon, and two of them were experimented upon twice in this connection, and in every single instance the effect on the cabbage was practically the same, and that is, it was almost entirely digested, notwithstanding the fact that cabbage is one of the slowest articles of food to be found in Mary Phagan's stomach, and I took pains to see to it that they did not chew this cabbage as they ate it very rapidly, in three or four minutes, gulped it down, so that we would have as nearly as possible the conditions that I was certain existed at the time Mary Phagan ate her last meal. The result of this, you gentlemen have seen."

(The witness here was permitted over the objection as above stated, to exhibit several small glass jars containing what purported to be partly digested cabbage, resulting from experiments made.)

"Now I know from my observations of the cases that I present here that the digestion of these persons was normal. I did not make a microscopic examination of the stomachs of the gentlemen experimented upon, but I made an examination of their stomachs to see how they secrete their food, which is the only way we can tell. You can take the fluids and tell whether the stomach is normal, it is the only way we possess.
"I merely wish to call attention to the fact that I made experiments which varied in the time that the contents were in the person's stomach, from 38 minutes, which was the time the contents were in the stomach of the boy 14 years of age, to 70 minutes, in another one of the cases, and the results indicated in every instance, from 38 to 70 minutes, every single instance, the cabbage was practically digested, practically altogether so."

Over objections made as is above stated, the Court permitted this testimony to go to the Jury and in doing so committed prejudicial error. Experts can testify from the given state of any science, but can not explain the process or results of particular experiments made by themselves.

20. Because the Court permitted the witness Harris to testify as follows:
"I wish to say that I made a microscopic examination of those contents of the stomachs, and while I found in Mary Phagan's case, except in the case of particles of cabbage that were chewed up too small to give sufficient indication, the cabbage that was in the stomach gives every indication of having been introduced into it within three quarters of an hour; the microscopic-
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