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

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Reading Time: 3 minutes [362 words]

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302 XY. - AMERICAN STATE TRIALS

"The benches always stuck it out, but they were screwed to the floor." You gentlemen have been practically in that fix, but I feel, nevertheless, that you have been peculiarly kind, and I thank you.

THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR THE STATE

Mr. Dorsey: Gentlemen of the Jury, this case is not only, as His Honor has told you, important, but it is extraordinary. It is extraordinary as a crime—a most heinous crime, a crime of a demoniac, a crime that has demanded vigorous, earnest, and conscientious effort on the part of your detectives, and which demands honest, earnest, conscientious consideration on your part. It is extraordinary because of the prominence, learning, ability, and standing of counsel pitted against me. It is extraordinary because of the defendant—it is extraordinary in the manner in which the gentlemen argue it, in the methods they have pursued in its management.

They have had two of the ablest lawyers in the country. They have had Rosser, the rider of the winds and the stirrer of the storm, and Arnold (and I can say it because I love him), as mild a man as ever cut a throat or scuttled a ship. They have abused me; they have abused the detective department; they have heaped so much calumny on me that the mother of the defendant was constrained to arise in their presence and denounce me as a dog. Well, there's an old adage, and it's true, that says, "When did any thief ever feel the halter draw with any good opinion of the law?"

Oh, prejudice and perjury! They say that is what this case is built on, and they use that stereotyped phrase until it fatigues the mind to think about it. Don't let this purchased indignation disturb you. Oh, they ought to have been indignant; they were paid to play the part. Gentlemen, do you think that these detectives and I were controlled by prejudice in this case? Would we, the sworn officers of the law, have sought to hang this man on account of his race and pass over the negro, Jim Conley? Was it prejudice when...

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