- 10 hours ago
Friday, June 13th, 1913
Conley is Prisoner of City Detectives, Not of State, Now
Conley Says His Attorney Believes Idea of Transfer Originated With Friends of Frank, to Harm Him
JUSTICE WARRANT MAY ROB DORSEY OF VICTORY
As Negro Is Held Simply on Suspicion, Any Citizen Might Secure Transfer to Tower on J. P. Warrant
James Conley, the negro sweeper, passed from the custody of the superior court Friday morning, and Solicitor General Dorsey won the first legal point in the prosecution of Leo M. Frank, who has been indicted for the murder of Mary Phagan.
Judge L. S. Roan, after a short hearing, which commenced in his chambers at 10 o'clock, granted the solicitor's petition that the court's former orders holding Conley as a material witness in the case against Frank, be revoked, thus preventing his transfer to the county jail.
When the court's action became formally known at police headquarters Conley was released and immediately rearrested on a charge of "suspicion," and put back in his old cell, where he claims he is afforded protection from friends of Frank, who, he alleges, annoyed him when he was in the Tower.
Judge Roan in opening the hearing remarked that he would have granted the solicitor's petition instanter had it not been for the unusual excitement about the case. He had issued a rule nisl calling upon any one who so desired to protest the solicitor's petition, he said, simply out of an abundance of caution.
The court said the only point at issue was whether or not Conley is a material witness in the case.
Present were Luther Z. Rosser, chief counsel for Frank; Stiles Hopkins, of Mr. Rosser's law firm; Bernard L. Chappell, counsel for Newt Lee; William M. Smith, counsel for Conley, and several attorneys not identified with the case.
The court asked these gentlemen if any one desired to make the point that Conley is a material witness in the case.
While the solicitor has openly stated that Conley is a material witness, he naturally did not make the point before the court.
DECLINED TO MAKE POINT.
Attorney Rosser said that he did not care to say that the negro was material to him.
He stated that he wished to formally file an answer to the rule nisl, with which he had been served, and to make his answer a part of the record in the case.
Attorney Smith said that he wished to file an answer for Conley to the rule and both papers were placed on the table before the court.
Mr. Rosser spoke of the announced intention of the solicitor to immediately rearrest the negro, and characterized the procedure as farcical, saying that there is a "right way and a wrong way" to hold the negro.
When no one made the point that Conley is a material witness the court granted the solicitor's petition.
Had the solicitor's petition not been granted Conley would have been transferred during the day to the county jail, where he claims to fear that physical and legal harm might be done, and where the solicitor do not want him held.
Conley is Prisoner of City Detectives, Not of State, Now
Conley Says His Attorney Believes Idea of Transfer Originated With Friends of Frank, to Harm Him
JUSTICE WARRANT MAY ROB DORSEY OF VICTORY
As Negro Is Held Simply on Suspicion, Any Citizen Might Secure Transfer to Tower on J. P. Warrant
James Conley, the negro sweeper, passed from the custody of the superior court Friday morning, and Solicitor General Dorsey won the first legal point in the prosecution of Leo M. Frank, who has been indicted for the murder of Mary Phagan.
Judge L. S. Roan, after a short hearing, which commenced in his chambers at 10 o'clock, granted the solicitor's petition that the court's former orders holding Conley as a material witness in the case against Frank, be revoked, thus preventing his transfer to the county jail.
When the court's action became formally known at police headquarters Conley was released and immediately rearrested on a charge of "suspicion," and put back in his old cell, where he claims he is afforded protection from friends of Frank, who, he alleges, annoyed him when he was in the Tower.
Judge Roan in opening the hearing remarked that he would have granted the solicitor's petition instanter had it not been for the unusual excitement about the case. He had issued a rule nisl calling upon any one who so desired to protest the solicitor's petition, he said, simply out of an abundance of caution.
The court said the only point at issue was whether or not Conley is a material witness in the case.
Present were Luther Z. Rosser, chief counsel for Frank; Stiles Hopkins, of Mr. Rosser's law firm; Bernard L. Chappell, counsel for Newt Lee; William M. Smith, counsel for Conley, and several attorneys not identified with the case.
The court asked these gentlemen if any one desired to make the point that Conley is a material witness in the case.
While the solicitor has openly stated that Conley is a material witness, he naturally did not make the point before the court.
DECLINED TO MAKE POINT.
Attorney Rosser said that he did not care to say that the negro was material to him.
He stated that he wished to formally file an answer to the rule nisl, with which he had been served, and to make his answer a part of the record in the case.
Attorney Smith said that he wished to file an answer for Conley to the rule and both papers were placed on the table before the court.
Mr. Rosser spoke of the announced intention of the solicitor to immediately rearrest the negro, and characterized the procedure as farcical, saying that there is a "right way and a wrong way" to hold the negro.
When no one made the point that Conley is a material witness the court granted the solicitor's petition.
Had the solicitor's petition not been granted Conley would have been transferred during the day to the county jail, where he claims to fear that physical and legal harm might be done, and where the solicitor do not want him held.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Solicitor H.M. Dorsey wins in first clash. L.Z. Rosser declares procedure a farce.
00:05Atlanta Journal, Friday, June 13, 1913. Conley is prisoner of city detectives, not of state.
00:11Now Conley says his attorney believes idea of transfer originated with friends of Frank to
00:16harm him. Justice Warrant may rob Dorsey of victory. As Negro is held simply on suspicion,
00:22any citizen might secure transfer to tower on J.P. Warrant. James Conley, the Negro sweeper,
00:27passed from the custody of the Superior Court Friday morning, and Solicitor General Dorsey
00:32won the first legal point in the prosecution of Leo M. Frank, who has been indicted for the murder
00:37of Mary Fagan. Judge L.S. Roan, after a short hearing which commenced in his chambers at 10 o'clock,
00:44granted the solicitor's petition that the court's former orders holding Conley as a material witness
00:48in the case against Frank be revoked, thus preventing his transfer to the county jail.
00:53When the court's action became formally known at police headquarters, Conley was released and
00:59immediately re-arrested on a charge of suspicion and put back in his old cell, where he claims he
01:05has afforded protection from friends of Frank, who, he alleges, annoyed him when he was in the tower.
01:10Judge Roan, in opening the hearing, remarked that he would have granted the solicitor's petition
01:14instanter had it not been for the unusual excitement about the case. He had issued a rule
01:20Nissel calling upon anyone who so desired to protest the solicitor's petition, he said,
01:26simply out of an abundance of caution. The court said the only point at issue was whether or not
01:31Conley is a material witness in the case. Present were Luther Z. Rosser, chief counsel for Frank,
01:37Stiles Hopkins of Mr. Rosser's law firm, Bernard L. Chappell, counsel for Newt Lee, William M. Smith,
01:44counsel for Conley, and several attorneys not identified with the case.
01:48The court asked these gentlemen if anyone desired to make the point that Conley is a material witness
01:53in the case. While the solicitor has openly stated that Conley is a material witness,
01:58he naturally did not make the point before the court. Declined to make point. Attorney Rosser said
02:04that he did not care to say that the Negro was material to him. He stated that he wished to
02:09formally
02:09file an answer to the rule Nissel, with which he had been served, and to make his answer a part
02:15of the
02:15record in the case. Attorney Smith said that he wished to file an answer for Conley to the rule,
02:20and both papers were placed on the table before the court. Mr. Rosser spoke of the announced
02:26intention of the solicitor to immediately re-arrest the Negro, and characterized the procedure as
02:31farcical, saying that there is a right way and a wrong way to hold the Negro. When no one made
02:38the
02:38point that Conley is a material witness, the court granted the solicitor's petition. Had the solicitor's
02:44petition not been granted, Conley would have been transferred during the day to the county jail,
02:48where he claims to fear that physical and legal harm might be done, and where the solicitor do
02:53not want him held, might take warrant. While apparently the court's action leaves the Negro
02:59in the custody of the police, until the solicitor decides to indict him as an accessory after the
03:04fact of Mary Fagan's murder, technically there is no charge against him, and now there is no legal
03:10obstacle in the way of any citizens drawing a justice court warrant against Conley, charging
03:15him either with a murder of Mary Fagan, or with being an accessory after the fact. Should such a
03:21warrant be drawn, the solicitor will lose the point he gained Friday morning, and the Negro will
03:26necessarily be transferred to the Tower. While there has been no intimation that any warrant will
03:31be drawn against Conley, it is quite apparent that anyone desiring to see the Negro transferred to
03:35the Tower can take this course. Conley's brief freedom. At 11.45 o'clock Friday morning, Conley
03:42was led from his cell to the desk sergeant's office, where Sergeant Holcomb placed, released June 13th,
03:481913, by order of Judge L.S. Roan, of the Superior Court, Stone Mountain Circuit, by the Negro's name on
03:55the docket. Then a free man, Conley walked out of the station house door into the auto passageway,
04:00closely followed by Chief Lanford. For about 20 paces, the free Negro walked, and then he hit the
04:06Decatur Street sidewalk. By some peculiar chance, Detective McGill was there, and the detective
04:11immediately spotted in Conley a suspicious personage. Detective McGill walked over to the Negro and
04:17formally placed him under arrest. He was led back before desk sergeant, where he was again docketed,
04:23the charge against him being suspicion. The Negro's arrest was credited to Chief Lanford,
04:28Detectives McGill and Coker, who first took Conley in custody. Going back to his cell, Conley remarked
04:34to Chief Lanford that if the court and the detectives had both released him, that he would have requested
04:39the permission of the authorities to remain at headquarters as a sleeper. I want to stay right
04:44here, the Negro told the officer. Negro's answer. The answer to the Negro, James Conley, to the rule
04:51Neesel, which was field with the court by William M. Smith, his attorney, gives fully the Negro's reasons
04:56for desiring to remain at police headquarters rather than the tower. Conley answers a rule
05:01in the case of the State v. Leo M. Frank, indicted for murder. The Negro sets out that he is
05:07now
05:07confined in the police prison at his own request, and by advice of his counsel, and that there he is
05:13protected from legal as well as physical harm. He occupies a solitary cell block, and no one is
05:18allowed to talk to him except by consent of himself and counsel, and in this way, he is protected from
05:23legal harm by anyone who might seek to damn him by false claims as to statements alleged to have
05:29been made by respondent, Conley. The Negro says that he is willing to remain indefinitely a prisoner
05:34in solitary confinement, subject to the orders of the court. He admits that he is a material witness
05:40in behalf of the State in this case, and admits that it is proper that he should be held until
05:44the
05:45final outcome of this case or any other growing out of the murder of Miss Mary Fagan. He alleges that
05:50he is held in complete and perfect imprisonment, and that there is no possible theory that the
05:55ends of justice will be thwarted if there exists no order of the Superior Court holding him.
06:00Relative to the movement to transfer him to the county jail, Conley says in his answer,
06:05This respondent is advised by his counsel, and it is the belief of his counsel that the idea of
06:10transfer back to the county prison has under it plans laid by persons unfriendly to the interests
06:15of this respondent and friendly to the intercepts of the defendant, Frank, in this case.
06:22While exonerating the sheriff, Conley declares that the conditions at the county jail are such
06:27that the interests of justice, as far as he is concerned, cannot be well safeguarded, and that
06:33his interest and the interest of justice would be threatened by his transfer to the tower.
06:37He alleges that in the tower an insufficient force of inside guards has been provided by the county
06:42authorities, and only one man is paid to guard twenty cell blocks distributed over five floors,
06:48and that it is a physical impossibility for one man to know what is going on on all five of
06:53these
06:53floors. The keys of practically all cell blocks, he alleges, are in the hands of convicted criminals
06:58known as trustees, who also prepare and distribute the food in the jail. Easy to reach him. Under these
07:05conditions, he alleges it would be easy for anyone to reach and harm him or to poison him through his
07:10food. He alleges that the friends of Frank are allowed to pour into the prison during the day,
07:15and until a late hour at night, and that some of these friends are in close touch with the trustees.
07:21Conley alleges that while he was in the tower, many people whom he did not desire to see were admitted
07:27to his cell block. Among these visitors, Conley alleges in his answer was one whom this respondent,
07:34Conley, has every reason to believe was working in the interest of the defendant, Frank.
07:39Conley alleges that this party presented him with a sandwich, which he was afraid to eat,
07:43and also offered him whiskey. Conley alleges that while in the county jail, he was threatened with
07:48physical harm to the extent of the possibility of taking his life, and that relative to his testimony
07:53in the case, he was denounced as a liar. These occurrences he attributes not to any neglect of the
07:59sheriff, but to the physical construction of the tower and an inadequate force of guards.
08:03Conley sets out that in the tower, he is in close association with the other prisoners,
08:08among whom are desperate criminals, and for that reason he says he might suffer great legal harm
08:14through these men falsely swearing that he had made incriminating admissions. One of these men is a
08:19convicted murderer, he says, and would be willing to swear anything to prolong his own life.
08:24Conley declares that he is advised and believes that one of the parties friendly to Frank is already
08:30priming himself to swear that he, Conley, made certain admissions while in the county jail,
08:35which he did not make, and which testimony will be false, and will be given, if given at all,
08:41to help the defendant, Frank, and injure the respondent, Conley. The last paragraph of Conley's
08:47answer to the rule, Nissel deals with his attitude towards the sheriff and reads as follows,
08:52attitude towards sheriff. That respondent is advised and believes that the sheriff of this county
08:57has publicly proclaimed that the defendant, Frank, looks at him in the eye like an innocent man.
09:02That the sheriff has given said defendant an entire cell block, and has isolated him completely
09:08except from his friends. That the sheriff has expressed himself as not desiring that nigger
09:13return to the county prison, meaning respondent. That the sheriff appears to feel the requests made
09:19by respondent are meant as a reflection upon the sheriff, but same was not so intending to be
09:24construed, nor was same so rep requested by respondent and in the transfer, nor was any
09:29such allegation made before the court, at the time of the passage of the second order, transferring
09:35respondent back to the city prison, nor does respondent believe that same was in the mind of
09:40the court, at the time of the passage of the order, or influenced the court, but that the inadequate
09:45force allowed the sheriff in the construction of the jail, rendered this request by respondent
09:50necessary, and same was made to this court, with no statement of facts, other than it was requested
09:57by respondent, and in the judgment of the representative of the state, there was necessity
10:02for same. Wherefore this respondent agrees to the passage of an order revoking former orders
10:06in this case, and waives his presence at the court upon a hearing of same.
10:10W. M. M. Smith, attorney for James Conley, Negro questioned. Thursday afternoon, Detective
10:16Starnes and Campbell had a long talk with Conley in his cell at headquarters. The Negro, according
10:21to Chief Lanford's report, reiterated his former statements, charging the Mary Fagan
10:26murder to Frank. Chief Lanford has given out the following statement, replying, he says,
10:31to an insinuation contained in the card of Luther Z. Rosser, counsel for Frank. It makes no
10:36difference how much the reward for the conviction of Mary Fagan's murderer may be. Neither the
10:41members of this department nor myself will accept any portion of it. This position, which
10:46I have taken in the matter, meets the approval of my men. If this department can dispose of
10:52the money appropriated for a reward, it will go towards the erection of a monument over the
10:56body of the slain child. Sheriff Wheeler Mangum has made a general denial of the allegations
11:01of Conley's answer to the Rule Niesel, in which Conley charged that he was not properly
11:06protected while in the tower. The sheriff declares that all prisoners who come under this care are
11:11amply and well protected, and that he spares no effort to prevent any harm, physical or legal,
11:16coming to them while they are his prisoners.
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