The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
doctor to later take the stand and testify that Loeb
was suffering from epilepsy; and it would be argued
that, having epilepsy, his mind was diseased.
Dr. Hulbert, in his report, as I will later show
you, says that there were not any evidences of faint-
ing in Loeb, except one fainting spell that he had
during initiation; and yet witness after witness was
put on, and they testified that he fainted, that his
eyes were glassy, and that he frothed at the mouth.
But cross-examination showed that he was merely
drunk; he was not rigid, but he was stiff; his froth-
ing at the mouth was a drunken vomit.
The evidence further showed that these other
fainting spells were due to the fact that, in one case,
seven or eight large boys jumped on him, and he
fainted as the result of injuries inflicted upon him;
he fainted again in the hospital after he had been
in an automobile accident, and the doctor who
waited upon him said that the fainting spells were
due entirely in his judgment to the accident. Then
the doctor who had been employed to take the stand
and testify to epilepsy was dismissed. If these lay
witnesses had stood up, and had not broken down
under cross-examination, that doctor would have
testified to epilepsy.
I submit that this defense is not an honest de-
fense. This is a defense built up to meet the needs
of the case. If the State had only had half of the
evidence that it did have, or a quarter of the evi-
dence that it had, we would have had a jury in the
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