The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
the law, which means there ought not to be any law
and there ought not to be any enforcement of the
law. And he even took me to Springfield, where he
argued before the legislature that you ought to
abolish capital punishment in the State of Illinois.
I don't know whether the fact that he had a couple
of rich clients who were dangerously close to the
gallows prompted that trip or not. I know when he
was a member of the legislature he did not abolish
capital punishment nor introduce a bill for that
purpose.
Yes, and on this tour he criticised the State's
Attorney of this county severely because he, in a
humane way, wanted to correct the law so that men
of this sort could be dealt with before somebody lay
cold in death, and that the children of this com-
munity might be protected.
When I occupied the position that your Honor
now graces, I had an unfortunate man come before
me. He was a man of my own race, of my own
faith. I don't know whether his pineal gland was
calcified or ossified. I don't know whether he had
clubfeet or not, and I did not inspect his back to
find out whether he had a couple of moles. I don't
know whether he developed sexually at 14 or 16.
I knew under the law he had committed a dastardly
crime. He had taken a little six-year-old girl, a
daughter of the poor, and he was a poor man, and
he outraged her and he took her into the basement
and covered her over with coal. He did not even
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