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

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Here is the translated text as follows:

552 ZX. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS

It is essential that the community understands the importance of the strict execution of laws, and no sympathy for the prisoner should be allowed to interfere with the administration of justice. If the notion spreads that a murderer may escape due to a lack of firmness on the part of jurors, it could encourage an assassin who is wavering in his purpose. Consequently, the jury that hesitates to return a verdict against the criminal becomes responsible for two deaths instead of one. It is the duty of the jury to judge merely the facts, without regard to consequences. In forming their judgment, they must act faithfully and truly according to the light they possess—they must form their opinion from the evidence available, which in most cases is wholly circumstantial. The fact that the innocent have sometimes been condemned on circumstantial evidence should not weigh on their minds, for the same objection might be urged against all testimony. A man may swear falsely, just as a series of circumstances may deceive. In some cases, indirect evidence may be even more satisfactory than the assertions of an eyewitness. Collusion of witnesses upon a story that will completely convince the minds of the jury is easy, but when different individuals testify to a variety of incidents without being aware of their mutual connection, and if these incidents all tend to a single point, the weight of evidence may be overwhelming.

The prisoner’s counsel have insisted that De Wolf had no time to kill Stiles. If the evidence proves this, does it not also prove that there was no time in which Stiles could have died? The witnesses testify about how long they were in the stable, and their testimony is not sufficiently exact to warrant the conclusion drawn in his defense. The death of Stiles is admitted, and even if death were caused by suicide, De Wolf was present and must have known the fact. What other than a sinister motive could De Wolf have had in carrying Stiles to the stable against his expressed desire, instead of taking him home?

The debt to Stiles, for which De Wolf had been once imprisoned...