Creator
United States. District Court (Georgia : Northern District)

Date of Original
1915

Subject
Frank, Leo, 1884-1915--Trials, litigation, etc.
Trials (Murder)--Georgia--Atlanta
Slaton, John M.
Governors--Georgia
Anti-defamation League
Habeas corpus--Georgia

Location
United States, Georgia, Fulton County, Atlanta, 33.749, -84.38798

Medium
government records
judicial records
records (documents)
writs

Type
Text

Description
Leo Frank, a prominent Atlanta Jewish businessman, was convicted of murdering Mary Phagan, a young female employee of his business in 1913. His trial in Fulton County, Georgia, was an emotionally charged event. Frank was found guilty and sentenced to death. When the verdict was announced, he was not present in the court.
Frank subsequently filed a writ of habeas corpus with the U. S. District Court of the United States for the Northern District of Georgia.
The court denied the appellant prisoner's petition for a writ of habeas corpus, ruling that his due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment had not been violated.
The Governor of Georgia, John Staton, ordered the sentence commuted. Frank was subsequently removed from prison by an angry mob and lynched.
In the aftermath of the Leo Frank lynching, the Jewish Anti-Defamation League was founded in New York, and the case subsequently influenced future rulings by the Supreme Court.

Metadata URL
http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/CollectionsA-Z/leofrank_search.html

Language
eng

Original Collection
Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2005 / General Index Case Files. Leo M. Frank v. C. Wheeler Mangum, Sheriff of Fulton County, Georgia, http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=720903

Holding Institution
United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Atlanta Branch

Rights