The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb'Leopold Case
of the counsel on either side in connection with their
arguments, but which, though more or less relevant
there, have been, in part, omitted here — none being
found in the following pages save such as were
thought would prove of interest to the reader and
of maybe more than mercurial value.
Speech of Thomas Marshall
If the Court Please:
THERE
is in this case but one question before
the court: What punishment is proportionate
to the turpitude of the offense?
If this is not a murder of the extreme type on the
facts, then, of course, a lesser penalty than death
can be invoked; but when months of planning, care-
ful execution of every detail, a money motive, a
kidnaping for ransom, the cruel blows of a sharp
steel chisel, the gagging, the death, and the hiding
of the body all appear, as they do here, the malice
and deliberation take the crime out of the scale of
lesser penalties and prescribe death.
The statute, it is true, ranges from fourteen years
to the death penalty, and the court has a duty to
fix a penalty that is proportionate to the depravity
and the viciousness of the crime committed; and in
arriving at its decision here, the court must exer-
cise a discretion. Not a personal, arbitrary, willful
discretion, but a judicial discretion; the applica-
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