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

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Here is the translated text as follows:

476 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

It is justifiable to repel force by force against anyone who endeavors to commit any kind of felony on oneself or one's property. The rule is clear: I have a right to stand in my own defense if you intend to commit a felony. If any of the persons made an attack on these soldiers with the intention to rob them, even if it was just to take their hats feloniously, the soldiers had a right to kill them on the spot and had no obligation to retreat. If a robber meets me in the street and commands me to surrender my purse, I have a right to kill him without asking questions. If a person commits a bare assault on me, this will not justify killing; but if he assaults me in such a manner as to reveal an intention to kill me, I have a right to destroy him, to put it out of his power to kill me.

In the case you will have to consider, I do not know that there was any attempt to steal from these persons; however, there were some individuals involved who would probably have stolen if there had been anything to steal, while many others had no such disposition. But this is not the point we aim at. The question is, are you satisfied that the people made the attack in order to kill the soldiers? If you are satisfied that the people, whoever they were, made that assault with a design to kill or maim the soldiers, this was such an assault that will justify the soldiers killing in their own defense.

Furthermore, it seems to me we may pose another question: whether you are satisfied that their real intention was to kill or maim or not. If any reasonable man, in the situation of one of these soldiers, would have had reason to believe at the time that the people came with an intention to kill him, whether you have this satisfaction now or not in your own minds, the soldiers were justifiable, or at least excusable, in firing. You and I may be suspicious that the people who made this assault on the soldiers did it to put them to flight, on purpose that they might go exulting about the town afterwards in triumph; but this will not do. You must place yourselves in the situation of Wemms or Killroy, considering yourselves as knowing the prejudices of the world around you.