The murder of little Mary Phagan - Vanessa Neubauer - Part 7 of 13

Long before June 1915, John Marshall Slaton had agonized over the proposed commutation of Leo Frank's sentence. He received more than 100,000 letters pleading for a commutation or pardon for Frank and Georgia, and national newspapers reminded him and the public of his power of forgiveness and his responsibility to wield it. Several governors and senators backed the motion to pardon Frank, but efforts were also made by leaders across the country. South-North resentment and animosity rekindled with such ferocity that newspapers across the country covered the development. Most people outside Georgia sympathized with Leo Frank and again attacked Georgia's anti-industrial, anti-Semitic sentiments, and police incompetence. After the Supreme Court denied Frank's motion in April 1915, his lawyers began lobbying for an administrative pardon. The most important information in the document is that the sitting governor of Georgia, John Marshall Slayton, was politically respected and was running for the United States Senate. Judge Morris argued that Slayton was a member of the law firm defending Frank, and that Slayton had been a name partner in the law firm of Rosser, Brandon, Slayton and Phillips since May 1913. The Cobb Democratic Executive Committee publicly asked Slayton to resign as governor or to assure the Georgians that they would not commute Frank's sentence, but Slayton also refused. Frank said he was to be hanged on June 22, 1915, and Slayton said he was to be succeeded by Nat Harris on June 26, 1915. Mr. Slayton could have granted a reservation and let Mr. Harris decide on the motion to reduce, but he and others felt that Mr. Harris would reject the motion. Slayton retired to his home on the outskirts of town and petitioned the Supreme Court for a ruling on the issue of mob influence in court. He studied other Court of Appeals' official rulings, trying to find a balance between Georgia's judicial integrity and mob rule. After visiting the pencil factory, Slayton concludes that Conley must have been lying when she claimed to have used the elevator to move Mary Phagan's body from the second floor to the basement. Clayton took the elevator himself and confirmed that he had indeed reached the bottom, and evidence of this had come to light. Slaton spent a lot of time and attention researching elevators. On June 20, 1915, John Slaton locked himself in the library all day, working on the Frank case. He listened to lawyers for Hugh Dorsey and Leo Frank and the Marietta delegation led by former Governor Joseph M. Brown. When he came out of the library, he said he ordered a commutation. His wife got up and waited for him, and when she came out he said he had made his decision.

He had taken the precaution of taking Leo Frank a minute past midnight from Fulton Tower to the train station, then taking the train to Macon and then driving to the Mirageville Prison Farm.