Governor To The General Assembly Of Georgia June 23 1915 State Vs Leo Frank Page 41

In the case of Hunter, a white man charged with assassinating two white women in the City of Savannah, who was found guilty and sentenced to be hung, application was made to me for clemency. Hunter was charged together with a Negro with having committed the offense, and after he was convicted, the Negro was acquitted. It was brought out by the statement of the Negro that another Negro, who was half-witted, committed the crime, but no credence was given to the story, and he was not indicted.

The judge and solicitor-general refused to recommend clemency, but upon a review of the evidence and because of the facts and at the instance of the leading citizens of Savannah, who were doubtful of the guilt of the defendant, I commuted the sentence in order that there should be no possibility of the execution of an innocent man. This action has met with the entire approbation of the people of Chatham County.

In the case of John Wright in Fannin County, two men went to the mountain home of a citizen, called him out, and shot him and were trampling on his body when his wife, with a babe in her arms, came out to defend her husband. One of the men struck the babe with his gun and killed it. Wright was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death. Evidence was introduced as to his borrowing a gun, his threats, his escape after the shooting occurred