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

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Reading Time: 3 minutes [359 words]

Here is the translated text as follows:

ORRIN DE WOLF, ESQ.

In determining this point, you are to look at the motives, the time, and the circumstances.

It is proper, therefore, to consider circumstantial evidence. It differs from positive evidence in that it does not profess to be direct proof. Instead, it connects one fact with another, and the inference drawn must be one that can be proven to be factual based on the connection of all the circumstances. It has been said that a case built on circumstantial evidence may be more compelling than one supported by positive evidence.

One witness may testify to one circumstance, and another to a different circumstance, yet both may contribute to establishing the same fact.

A case may consist of both positive and circumstantial evidence, and this may be of that class. All the circumstances suggest that the prisoner had the motive to commit the crime charged in the indictment. When you find the act done, you must carefully investigate all the circumstances connected with its commission. The confession of the defendant is partly positive and partly circumstantial. It is positive insofar as it corroborates the proven circumstances. It is circumstantial insofar as it reveals a variety of circumstances connected with the act. But the question now is about the confession made and the circumstances under which it was made. The party knows whether these are true or not. If you have evidence that it was honest and sincere, then you may attach greater weight to those circumstances. If there were facts or circumstances that excited hopes or expectations of escape, then you are to look carefully at the confession itself. You are to inquire whether it was honest and sincere or whether any inducements were offered to entrap him into a confession. If it appears that a man has been seduced by his own feelings, or that there have been other circumstances to draw out a confession under the anticipation of personal benefit or release, then, gentlemen, you must reject it as being untrue. But if he makes it in the absence of motives or inducements of such a nature, it may be considered more reliable.