1913

Despite questionable evidence and significant procedural irregularities, Frank was convicted largely based on the testimony of Jim Conley, an African American janitor who claimed to have helped Frank dispose of Phagan’s body.

Public reaction to the trial was polarized and often lethal. The press coverage inflamed public opinion, and antisemitic rhetoric was openly displayed during and after the trial. The prosecution painted Frank as morally corrupt, while defenders argued that his Jewish identity and outsider status (he was a Northerner) made him an easy target. The Georgia Supreme Court upheld Frank’s conviction, but concerns about the fairness of the trial led Georgia Governor John M. Slaton to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment in 1915. In explaining his controversial decision, Slaton wrote, “I can endure misconstruction, abuse and condemnation, but I cannot stand the constant companionship of an accusing conscience, which would remind me in every thought that I, as a Governor of Georgia, failed to do what I thought to be right.” (Slaton, Commutation Statement, June 21, 1915).

Governor Slaton’s commutation led to an explosion of public outrage. Just weeks later, a mob of prominent local citizens—including a former governor, a mayor, and state legislators—kidnapped Frank from prison and lynched him near Marietta, Georgia, Mary Phagan’s hometown. The killing of Leo Frank was widely condemned by some national observers, but many in Georgia saw it as a form of justice. The New York Times described the lynching as “a shameful reminder of medieval vengeance,” (August 18, 1915), while Southern defenders praised it as the will of the people. The case had lasting implications for both the Jewish community and broader civil rights efforts—it gave rise to the Anti-Defamation League, but it also helped spark the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan.

In 1986, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles posthumously pardoned Frank, not on grounds of proven innocence, but due to the state’s failure to protect him.