Wednesday, 23rd December 1914: Marshall Will Make Supreme Court Plea, The Atlanta Constitution

Frank's Atlanta Lawyers Will Prepare for Plea to the Prison Board.

WILL PLEAD FOR FRANK. Philadelphia, December 22. (Special.) In the belief that a commutation of the death sentence to life imprisonment will ultimately lead to Justice and bring to Leo Frank, the man convicted in Atlanta as the slayer of Mary Phagan, a final proof of his innocence, prominent Jews of Philadelphia have inaugurated a movement to plead with Governor Slaton, of Georgia, to save Frank from the gallows. As a climax, a mass meeting will be held in the Academy of Music, at which time a monster petition, signed by thousands, will be prepared, and a Committee appointed to present personally both the petition and a host of letters to the Georgia Executive urging clemency.

Although it was at first planned that H. A. Alexander, Associate Counsel for Leo Frank, would leave at once for Washington to make the last United States Supreme Court Appeal for the life of his client, it has practically been decided that the Washington end will be left to Louis Marshall, the Federal Court Expert who assisted in the last Supreme Court plea. Mr. Alexander remains in Atlanta to help concentrate upon the plans for the Appeal before the Prison Commission and Governor Slaton. Marshall is reported to be one of the most efficient Federal Law Authorities in the East. He will have complete charge of the Supreme Court fight, and is now en route to Washington, where he will present his first Appeal to Justice Lamar, who has control over the Georgia jurisdiction of the Washington tribunal.

Attorneys for Frank would not talk Tuesday over their plans for pleading before the Prison Commission. It is said, however, that their plea is already under Course of Preparation, and that it will be submitted at an early date in the event the Washington Court decides adversely.