118 Sheet – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

Search for:

Reading Time: 3 minutes [398 words]

Here is the translated text as follows:

86 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

The fate of the unfortunate girl encapsulates the entire narrative. If we fail to learn from it, the lessons of broader experience would be futile. Had the advocate in her case assumed the actual truth of the events, would he have been listened to? Would his suggestion not have been dismissed with a sneer from the prosecution, or negated with the simple retort: "This is far-fetched"? Would the jury have abandoned the lie that seemed so plausible for the truth that appeared so improbable? The law instructed them to relinquish their preconceptions, but they could not. The law mandated this in the fourth rule, yet they refused to heed its command! Were they honest? Yes, in all likelihood, they were honest and striving to do right; yet, like all men, they were captivated by circumstantial evidence and could not abandon the illusion their own reasoning had created. They were unable to recognize and admit their own fallibility, and because of this, they condemned an innocent girl to death. The pride of intellect makes a conviction based on circumstantial evidence the most compelling of all our convictions, and thus, it is the last we are willing to relinquish.

Do you not pity that jury? Did they sleep peacefully after learning the truth they had rejected? How clearly they saw the truth "afterwards"! How easy it was to see the true hypothesis "afterwards"! But what word is as sorrowful as that word "afterwards"? The law of the fourth rule is intended to strip "afterwards" of its power to mourn. It is designed to prevent "afterwards" from revealing what "possibility" did not encompass. The fourth rule, if observed by juries, will prevent these tragic errors, this shedding of innocent blood. Have we not enough warnings in history, in judicial records, and in daily life to show us that circumstances can lie, do lie, and will lie until the end of time? They lied to Jacob. What but the lie of circumstantial evidence caused the aged patriarch to tear his garments, clothe himself in sackcloth, and utter the anguished cry that would not be consoled, "I will go down into the grave, unto my son, mourning"? This case is instructive in demonstrating the power of falsehood conveyed by circumstantial evidence. "It is my son's coat; an evil beast has devoured him; Joseph is..."