Well, he had murdered a 13 year old girl.
Look, a white jury of that era didn’t buy the made up story Frank’s defense came up with trying to blame a black man. Think about that for a minute. The evidence simply pointed elsewhere.
I’m not defending Tom Watson with that.
People were outraged an outgoing governor commuted Frank’s sentence to life, probably for payment. With the results we see.
People believed in capital punishment back then. Strongly so.