650 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

Here is the translated text as follows:

618 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

"It was not." After this, he accounts for himself by stating that he was in the woods sitting on a log, on Clear Ridge. When it remains necessary for a man to account for where he was the day before, if he gives different relations of what he was doing and where he was, it is a circumstance against him. You have heard how he seduced John to return to his father's on Saturday. You have heard the circumstances of the tracks and the boots—the alleged blood on his hands—his knowledge of the guns—of the family—of the whole ground—of the description of his person by Brown, as well as all the other facts proved; and if, on the whole, they satisfy you of his guilt, your duty is obvious. As you cannot hear the evidence out, we will read it to you.

The counsel for the prisoner says that there are but three circumstances upon which any reliance can be placed:

1. The testimony of Brown, alleging that he knew at the time that it was the prisoner that shot at him.
2. The circumstance of McConaghy's account of where he was that day.
3. The fact of his visiting John the day before, and seducing him home on Saturday.

We agree, these are the leading circumstances; but there are many minor ones, which, if they accord, and are consistent with these, will tend to their support and weight. If the jury should find any of the minor circumstances to militate against these, it will tend to weaken them. But do not all the minor facts and circumstances support the leading ones? Do they not all tend to establish the fact that Robert McConaghy committed the crimes charged in the indictment? You are the judges of this. We agree that suspicion is not proof; that a man ought never to be convicted on probabilities; but that the circumstances which should satisfy a jury of guilt, should be fully established; that the facts proven should be consistent with the charge; and, lastly, that the circumstances should be of a conclusive nature and tendency. We agree that the investigation of the circumstances in this case has left every other...

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