The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
I used to wonder what the poet Gray meant when
he talked about the short and simple annals of the
poor. Clarence Darrow once said that the poor man
on trial was usually disposed of in fifteen minutes,
but if he was rich and committed some crime, and
he got a good lawyer, his trial would last twenty-
one days. Well, they have three good lawyers, and
it has lasted just a little bit longer; and in addition
they had three wise men from the East.
Are we trying here, if your Honor please, a
murder case? And what is the evidence presented
by the State upon which we ask the extreme penalty?
A murder. Was it the result of a drunken brawl,
a murder committed in hot blood? Some injury,
real or fanciful? A man shooting down another be-
cause he debauched his wife and destroyed his
home? A murder the result of impulse or passion?
No; one of the most carefully planned murders
that your Honor or I, from all our long experience,
have ever heard about. Was it a murder committed
by some young gamin of the streets, whose
father was a drunkard and his mother loose, who
was denied every opportunity and brought up in the
slums, never a decent example set before him? No;
but a murder committed by two superintellects,
coming from the members of the most respected
families in Chicago; every advantage that love,
wealth and position could give them was theirs.
A man's conduct, I believe, your Honor, depends
upon his philosophy of life. Those who want to
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