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

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Here is the translated text as follows:

442, & AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

Justice. We ought to recollect that our present decisions will be scanned, perhaps throughout all Europe. We must not forget that we ourselves will have a reflective hour—an hour in which we shall view things through a different medium—when the pulse will no longer beat with the tumults of the day—when the conscious pang of having betrayed truth, justice, and integrity shall bite like a serpent and sting like an adder.

Consider, gentlemen, the danger which you, and all of us, are in of being led away by our affections and attachments. We have seen the blood of our fellow men flowing in the streets. We have been told that this blood was wrongfully shed. That is now the point in issue. But let it be borne deep upon our minds that the prisoners are to be condemned by the evidence here in court produced against them, and by nothing else. Matters heard or seen abroad are to have no weight; in general, they undermine the pillars of justice and truth. It has been our misfortune that a system of evidence has appeared in the world against us. It is not our business to blame anyone for this. It is our misfortune, I say. It should be remembered that we were not present to cross-examine; and the danger which results from this publication being in the hands of those who are to pass upon our lives ought to be guarded against. We say we are innocent by our plea; and we are not to be denounced guilty by a new species of evidence—unknown in the English system of criminal law.

But, as though a series of ex parte evidence was not enough, all the colors of the canvas have been touched, in order to freshen the wounds, and by a transport of imagination, we are made present at the scene of action. The prints exhibited in our houses have added wings to fancy; and, in this way, the narrative of the Boston committee, which was entirely erroneous in many respects, has influenced public perception. The depositions were very different from the testimony of the same witnesses at the trial, when the excitement had somewhat subsided, and they were subjected to a cross-examination.*

*This refers to the narrative of the Boston committee, which was entirely erroneous in many respects, and the depositions were very different from the testimony of the same witnesses at the trial, when the excitement had somewhat subsided, and they were subjected to a cross-examination. (See Bibliography, ante, p. 418.)

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