The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
of these boys or their counsel could see them, while
they were in the care of the State's Attorney's office,
they brought them in to be examined by their
alienists. Dr. Patrick said that they had no emo-
tional reactions. Dr. Church said the same. These
are their alienists, not ours. These boys could tell
this gruesome story without a change of counte-
nance, without the slightest feelings. What was the
reason? I do not know. I know what causes the
emotional life. I know it comes from the nerves,
the muscles, the endocrine glands, the vegetative
system. I know it is the most important part of life.
Is Dickie Loeb to blame because out of the in-
finite forces that conspired to form him, the forces
that were at work producing him ages before he was
born, because out of these infinite combinations he
was born without it? If he is, then there should be
a new definition for justice. Is he to blame for
what he did not have and never had? Is he to blame
that his machine is imperfect? Who is to blame?
I do not know. I have never in my life been inter-
ested so much in fixing blame as I have in relieving
people from blame. I am not wise enough to fix it.
I know that somewhere in the past that entered into
him something missed. It may be defective nerves.
It may be a defective heart or liver. It may be de-
fective endocrine glands. I know it is something.
I know that nothing happens in this world without
a cause. I know, your Honor, that if you, sitting
here in this court, and in this case, had infinite
155