0213 Sheet – Supreme Court Georgia Appeals of Leo Frank, 1913, 1914

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poll of the jury, which was then in progress, and not
finished. Indeed, so great was the noise and confusion without
that the Court heard the responses of the jurors during the
polling with some difficulty. The court was about 15 feet from
the jury. In the court room was the jury, lawyers, newspaper men,
and officers of the court, and among them there was no disorder.
The polling of the jury is an important part of the trial. It
is inconceivable that any juror, even if the verdict was not his
own, to announce that it was not, in the midst of the turmoil and
strife without.

The exhibits J to AA inclusive are hereby made a part of this
ground, and the Court will err if it does not grant a new trial
on this ground.

67. Because the Court erred in failing to charge the jury that
if a witness knowingly and wilfully swore falsely in a material
matter, his testimony shall be rejected entirely, unless it be
corroborated by facts and circumstances of the case or other cre-
ditable evidence.

The Court ought to have given this charge, although no
written request was formerly made therefor, for the reason that
the witness Jim Conley, who testified as to aiding Frank in the
disposal of the body, was attacked by the defendant as utterly
unworthy of belief, and he admitted upon the stand that he knew
that he was lying in the affidavits made by him with reference
to the crime and before the trial.

Especially ought this charge to have been given, because the
Court, in his charge to the jury, left the question of the
credibility of witnesses to the jury, without any rule of law to
govern them in determining their credibility.

68. Because the Court permitted to be read to the jury, over
the objection of the defendant made at the time the testimony
was offered, that same was immaterial, irrelevant, incompetent,
and not binding upon Frank, a part of an affidavit made by the
witness Minola McKnight, as follows:

"Mrs. Frank gave me $3.50 last week and one week she paid me $5.00. Up to the time of this murder
I was getting $3.50 per week and the week right after the murder
/30.