By Ranjan Bhaduri
Nov 3, (THAINDIAN NEWS) A documentary named, “The people vs Leo frank”, which was aired on Nov 2nd, has once again brought into the limelight the prosecution of Leo Frank who was sentenced to death over the rape and murder of a 13 year old.

Leo Frank, a Jew who served as the supervisor and manager of the National Pencil Company’s factory was arrested when a 13 year old child labor, Mary Phagan’s raped and murdered body was found in the basement. He was tried and was sentenced to death, but later the Governor pardoned him because of the belief that Frank never got a fair trial. When he was being commuted he was nabbed by the mob and was reportedly hung from a tree in Georgia. The whole case became a celebrated one, when it was revealed that the evidence showed the murderer to be someone else.

The documentary has been directed by Ben Loeterman and was released on 30th April 2009. It has a star cast of Will Janowitz (Leo Frank), Seth Gilliam (Jim Conley), Jayson Warner Smith (William Smith), Steve Coulter (Hugh Dorsey), Chuck Bibby (Judge Leonard Roan), Brett Rice (Luther Rosser), Katie Adkins (Newt Lee), Ryan Lewisd (Harry Scott), Jackson Walker (John Black), Jeff Rose (Boots Rogers) and others.

The documentary shows how the 13 year old girl is found dead with the police relying on the fact that Frank is responsible for the death. The lawyers then used “ad hominen” as their argument bases for the trial that continues from 1913 to 1915 followed by being in the movies (They wont forget), TV movies ( The murder of Mary Phagan), musicals (Parade), songs( The ballad of Mary Phagan) etc.