Video: 'The People Vs. Leo Frank'

(Tuesday, March 11, 1986) — The State of Georgia awarded a posthumous pardon today to Leo Frank, a Jewish businessman who was lynched in 1915 for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles had refused to grant a pardon in December 1983, despite Gov. Joe Frank Harris’s public statements in favor of the proposal.

But the board reversed itself and granted the pardon today after the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Atlanta Jewish Federation submitted a new petition arguing that they should not have to prove Mr. Frank’s innocence, only that he was denied justice.

The board said Frank was pardoned because the state failed to protect him and because officials failed to bring his killers to justice.