The People v. Leo Frank premieres on PBS TODAY, 11/2/09. Check Local Listings to see when it is airing on your local station.

In the pre-dawn hours of April 27, 1913, the night watchman at an Atlanta pencil factory made a grisly discovery: the body of a young girl. She had been beaten, strangled, and possibly raped. The death of 13-year-old Mary Phagan, a white worker at the factory, quickly became front-page news. Several arrests were made, including Jim Conley, a black janitor at the factory. Also arrested was Leo Frank, the factory's superintendent and the last person to admit seeing Mary alive.

Suspicion of Frank soon mounted, based largely on his nervous behavior. A Jew who was raised in Brooklyn, Frank quickly became prosecutor Hugh Dorsey's prime suspect. In the last of four statements the police 'sweated' out of Jim Conley, he confessed to having helped Leo Frank hide Mary's body but, the janitor insisted, Frank alone was the killer. 'POLICE HAVE THE STRANGLER,' blared one headline, effectively convicting Leo before he ever faced a jury.

Frank's trial lasted a month. Each day spectators packed the sweltering courtroom, with hundreds more waiting outside to catch the latest news. The proceedings descended into a free-for-all of racial stereotypes, hearsay testimony and contradictions on the witness stand. Despite Conley's conflicting statements, the all-white jury accepted the word of the Southern black janitor over that of the Northern Jewish factory superintendent. Leo Frank was pronounced guilty and sentenced to death.