State Board of Pardons and Paroles
Fifth Floor, East Tower
Floyd Veterans Memorial Building
2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, S.E.
Atlanta, Georgia 30334
Board Members:
Mobley Howell, Chairman
Mrs. Mamie B. Reese, Member
James T. Morris, Member
Michael H. Wing, Member
Wayne Snow, Jr., Member
Decision on the Application for a Posthumous Pardon for Leo M. Frank
On August 25, 1913, Leo M. Frank was convicted in Fulton County Superior Court of murdering Mary Phagan and sentenced to death by hanging.
Over the next two years, Frank’s attorneys pursued multiple appeals through state and federal courts, all of which were denied.
On June 21, 1915, Governor John M. Slaton commuted Frank’s death sentence to life imprisonment.
Less than two months later, on August 17, 1915, a mob abducted Frank from the state prison in Milledgeville, transported him to Cobb County, and lynched him.
On January 4, 1983, the Board received a joint application from the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, the American Jewish Committee, and the Atlanta Jewish Federation, seeking a full pardon to exonerate Leo M. Frank of the murder charge.
Upon accepting the petition, the Board informed the applicants that a pardon would be granted only if conclusive evidence established Frank’s innocence beyond any doubt. The burden of providing such proof rested solely with the applicants.
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER
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The Board examined extensive materials submitted in support of Leo M. Frank’s pardon application, prompted by Alonzo Mann’s 1982 affidavit. Mann claimed that around noon on April 26, 1913, he saw Jim Conley carrying what appeared to be Mary Phagan’s body inside the National Pencil Company building and was threatened into silence.
Even if accurate, Mann’s testimony only confirms that the elevator was not used to move the body—a fact already established by Governor Slaton in 1915—and therefore offers no new evidence.
The Board also reviewed numerous letters and briefs representing both support for and opposition to the pardon, along with the complete trial record from the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Following careful review, the Board concluded that while Leo Frank’s lynching remains a profound injustice and a permanent scar on Georgia’s history, no conclusive proof of his innocence exists. Given the passage of time and the loss of witnesses, certainty is no longer possible.
Accordingly, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles denies the application for a posthumous pardon for Leo M. Frank.
You can check out the 2025 newly revised book of Mary Phagan and Leo Frank Case from the 1987 older version by Mary Phagan-Kean, Now Available on Amazon Books.
WEBSITE: www.LittleMaryPhagan.com
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