Sunday, July 6, 1913
*Editor's Note: See insert article, "Decisions Which May Aid Defense of Frank", at the conclusion of this post.
Frank Expects Freedom by Breaking Down Accuser's Testimony, and State a Conviction by Establishing Truth of Statements.
BY AN OLD POLICE REPORTER.
The developments in the Phagan case have been of late highly significant and interesting.
During the past week, it became evident that the very heart and soul of both the prosecution and the defense is to center largely about the negro, James Conley.
He is at once apparently the hope and the despair of both sides to the contest!
This circumstance, however, while tending to add much to the dramatic and the uncertain, in so far as the outcome is concerned, is not by any means an unusual thing in cases of this kind.
It frequently happens in mysterious murder cases that both the State and the defense must pin their faith to one and the same witness.
Of late there has been some talk of the Grand Jury indicting Conley, even over the Solicitor General's head, which, of course, it would have a perfect right to do.
The thought occurred to me some time ago that the case might take that direction, but in the article in which that point was discussed, I mentioned it incidentally, rather than as a likely thing.
Indictment may Mean Much.
It seems, nevertheless, that the idea of indicting Conley has had, and still may have, much more behind it than some people have been willing to admit, and that phase of the situation has caused me to speculate somewhat in detail today as to how and why Conley might be indicted.
I find that those who are urging it have much more to stand upon than would seem probable at first blush.
Two things are evident:
First, the defense will attack Conley vigorously.
Second, the character of Leo Frank will be put in issue by the defense, fearlessly and frankly!
These two things, I take it, will constitute the defense's primary challenge to the prosecution!
And if I be right about that, the issue will be thrilling and dramatic enough to satisfy the cravings of the most exacting, when the case comes on for trial later along this month.
About these two points of disagreement, Hugh Dorsey and Frank Hooper, on the one hand, and Luther Rosser and Reuben Arnold, on the other, will be on their mettle—and if the fur and likewise the fire doesn't fly, I mistake my guess at this writing!
Leo Frank has been indicted for the murder of Mary Phagan, and for reasons presumably unsatisfactory to the Grand Jury.
Points Against Conley.
Let's examine the points upon which the defense will indict Conley, if the Grand Jury fails to beat the defense to it—which yet is problematical.
The defense will contend:
(1) That Conley wrote of his own notion the notes found beside the dead girl's body.
(2) That the negro told of incidents and conversations which took place admittedly in the pencil factory an hour or more before he swears he went there.
