Chapter 20: 100 years: 2013 Final

One day before Leo M. Frank was scheduled to be hanged on June 22, 1915, by Sheriff Mangum, the outgoing Georgia Governor John Marshall Slaton used his executive privilege and commuted the death sentence of his own law firm’s client, Leo M. Frank, to life in prison at the eleventh hour on June 21, 1915. What made Governor Slaton’s commutation such a grotesque conflict of interest and betrayal of his oath of office (June 1913) was the fact that he was a senior law partner and part owner of the merged law firm “Rosser, Brandon, Slaton and Phillips,” which formed in July 1913.

The convicted murderer, having gone through an official coroner’s inquest jury that voted against Leo Frank 7 to 0, a grand jury that voted 21 to 0 against him, followed by a trial jury and judge that voting 13 to 0 against him, all giving a unanimous decision in their own way for this client. And all attempts to have the verdict set aside for this client or get him a new trial fail. (In total, after the capital murder trial, there were two years of judicial review by State, District, and Federal Courts, and all of these tribunals chose not to disturb the verdict when they had the power to do so. Even the Governor John M. Slaton himself wrote in his commutation order, on the last page, that he was sustaining the jury and appellate tribunals [appeals courts]) and that the charge of racial prejudice was unfair.

The public went into a fevered pitch, not because of anti-Semitism but because of Slaton's conflict of interest and feared Slaton had been bought.

John Marshall Slaton was hanged in effigy as a result of betraying his oath of office. About 1,200 people marched on the governor’s mansion, and had the local Militia not been called out to protect him, he would have been beaten and lynched.

The kidnapping of Leo Frank was not anti-Semitism.  A group of prominent men of the Marietta community which were known as the "Vigilance Commitee" carried out the original sentence of hanging because he was a sexual pervert and murdered a little girl. He was lynched on the morning of August 17, 1915, outside of the town of Marietta where most of the Phagan family lived.

Tom Watson, Populist Politician wrote in "The Jeffersonian "magazine, “Lynch law is a good sign; it shows that a sense of justice lives among the people.”

The supporters of Frank:

"It’s the only known lynching of a Jew in American history."  which emphasizes his Jewishness not conviction for being a sexual pervert and murder of a child.

The lynching of Leo Frank 

From that time to present day, the ADL, former Governor Roy Barnes, Rabbi Lebow, and rest of the U.S. Jewish establishment intent is to reverse the guilty verdict of the trial, to exonerate Leo Frank fully, and to have the state of Georgia proclaim him to be an innocent man.

This is what has been accomplished by the ADL:

In 1982, the ADL of B'nai B'rith, the American Jewish Committee, Atlanta Jewish Federation and numerous other Jewish organizations pushed for a Posthumous Pardon and Exoneration for Leo M. Frank for the murder of Mary Ann Phagan based on Alonzo Mann's new evidence. The petition was denied on December 22, 1983.

In 1986, the ADL of B'nai B'rith, the American Jewish Committee, Atlanta Jewish Federation and numerous other Jewish organizations pushed again for a Posthumous Pardon and Exoneration Leo Frank again:  Georgia Pardon and Paroles Board issue a posthumous pardon to Leo Frank and the Jewish groups expressed satisfaction with it:

'Without attempting to address the question of guilt or innocence, and in recognition of the state's failure to protect the person of Leo M. Frank and thereby preserve his opportunity for continued legal appeal of his conviction, and in recognition of the state's failure to bring his killers to justice, and as an effort to heal old wounds, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, in compliance with its constitutional and statutory authority, hereby grants to Leo M. Frank a pardon. Given under the Hand and Seal of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, this eleventh day of March 1986. STATE BOARD OF PARDONS AND PAROLES Wayne Snow, Jr., "                                                   

Blatant Lies:  Revisionist of History

In 2003, the 90th anniversary of the Anti-Defamation League's establishment, the ADL entrance of the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens, NY where Leo Frank is buried.

It reads:

Leo Frank: The trial of Leo Frank in 1913 was motivated by the rampant antisemitism of the time. The founding of the Anti-Defamation League that same year was motivated by a passion to eradicate such injustice and bigotry. Despite his innocence, Frank was abducted from jail in 1915 and lynched. ADL remembers the victim Leo Frank and rededicates itself to ensuring there will be no more victims of injustice and intolerance.

The ADL has chosen to ignore the voluminous records of the case and their own expert, Steve Oney, which clearly shows no "prejudice" or "anti-Semitism" affected the trial or lynching to promote Leo Frank's innocence.  Leo Frank was convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan and remains the convicted murderer.