The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
from his chair." Even Dr. Krohn knows better than
that. I fancy if your Honor goes into an elevator
where there is a lady he takes off his hat. Is that
out of emotion for the lady or is it habit? You say,
" Please," and " Thank you," because of habit.
Emotions haven't the slightest thing to do with it.
Krohn told the story of this interview and he told
almost twice as much as the other two men who sat
there and heard it. And how he told it! When he
testified my mind carried me back to the time when
I was a " kid," which was some years ago, and we
used to eat watermelons. I have seen little boys
take a rind of watermelon and cover their whole
faces with water, eat it, devour it, and have the time
of their lives, up to their ears in watermelon. And
when I heard Dr. Krohn testify in this case, to take
the blood of these two boys, I could see his mouth
water with the joy it gave him, and he showed all
the delight and pleasure of myself and my young
companions when we ate watermelon.
I can imagine a psychiatrist, a real one who knows
the mechanism of man, who knows life and its
machinery, who knows the misfortunes of youth,
who knows the stress and the strain of adolescence
which comes to every boy and overpowers so many,
who knows the weird fantastic world that hedges
around the life of a child — I can imagine a psy-
chiatrist who might honestly think that under the
crude definitions of the law the defendants are sane
and know the difference between right and wrong.
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