I saw the film some time ago on the murder of 13 year old Mary Phalan and the conviction of her boss Leo Frank. It happened in 1913 Atlanta. Frank was convicted on the testimony of the night watchman who said he saw Frank near the dead body of Ms Phalan. It was said that it was the only time the word of a black man was taken over a white man (the watchman was black). Frank was convicted and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted by the Governer of Georgia. Later he was lynched by an angry mob. The Governer lost his reelection on account of commuting the sentence. The prosecutor in the case, a Mr. Dorsey was elected States Attorney, because of the case.

The fact that Frank was Jewish made the case comparable to the Dreyfus case in France. The conviction was followed by anti semetic riots in Atlanta.

Many years later, a witness, who was a child at the time of the crime came forward and admitted that he saw the night watchman with the corpse of the victim. So far Franks conviction remains valid, though lawyers are fighting for a reversal of the conviction.

Prosecutor Leo Dorsey faced defense attorneys Luther Rosser and Reuben Arnold in the trial that began on July 28, 1913. Dorsey built a strong case against the accused murderer. Frank claimed to be in his office at the time the murder but another worker contradicted this, saying she visited his office at 12:05pm and he was not there. Testimony was introduced indicating that Frank made "improper" advances to some of Phagan's co-workers.
Newspapers were having a field day with the trial, blaring details of testimony, always searching to beat each other with new evidence that would convict or exonerate Leo Frank. A circulation war fed the fire that promoted hearsay to fact.

On August 4th, 1913, Jim Conley's testimony visibly shook the jury. He claimed that Frank helped him move the limp body of Mary Phagan to the basement and made him (Conley) write the murder notes. The defense tried to shake the janitor's story, but in spite of Conley's admission that he had earlier lied to the police, the story stood. Attempts by defense attorney Luther Rosser to impeach his testimony failed despite some seven hours of cross-examination.

http://ngeorgia.com/feature/littlesecrets.html

Seemed rather involved. Never saw the movie though.

Oops....missed this part..

In November, 1915, William Joseph Simmons invited some of the men who hung Leo Frank to a meeting he was organizing. Because the death of Leo Frank was still vivid in the minds of Georgians, he felt these men would be important to the success of the organization. On a cool Thanksgiving evening Simmons, some of the Knights of Mary Phagan, along with a number of other men (34 in all) burned a cross and read from the bible atop Stone Mountain, east of Atlanta. Simmons then declared the founding of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.