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

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Here is the translated text as follows:

760 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS

The probability of his having perjured himself by the suppression of important truths is significant.

I will now call your attention to another aspect of this witness's testimony. He has stated that the carpenter set fire to a bag of powder in the hold. Would the witness himself be willing to try this experiment? Would the carpenter have succeeded in such an attempt and made his escape to the shore in safety? Is it not more probable that he would have been in another world before reaching his boat? Yet, the witness has subsequently stated to you that he is not positive it was a bag, saying, "the powder was in a keg or a bag."

Remember the many contradictory statements made by Perez regarding the removal of the eleven thousand dollars at Nazareth, the attack on the English corvette by the schooner, and the money sent by Capt. G. to the second mate after the latter had absconded. Consider the probability that the division of money on the coast, mentioned by Perez, was nothing more than the payment of wages to the crew. It is very doubtful that a false logbook had ever been made by the mate. If such a logbook had been made, why had it never been presented by the prisoners to prove their innocence of the crime with which they were charged?

Compare the evidence of Perez with that of the other witnesses, and remember that it is easier for a single witness to adhere to one falsehood than for a number of witnesses to maintain a consistent course of evidence without detection. Here, I would like to draw your attention to the difference between the statements of Perez and those of Capt. Butman. Perez has told you that at the time of the capture of the Mexican, a musket shot was fired from the Panda, while Capt. Butman tells you, "the schooner gave chase, fired a gun to leeward, and hoisted patriot colors." In connection with this matter, the district attorney asked, was the gun loaded with shot?

I next called attention to the statement made by Capt. Butman in his logbook, that there were 60 or 70 men on board the schooner, and that she had two brass ten-pounders; while Perez said there were only 30 men on board, and both he and...

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