The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
Anderson did not plan that killing of that police
officer for months. That group went down the
street, they met the officer, were accosted, and shots
were fired; the officer is dead, and Anderson is sen-
tenced by the court to the death penalty, and it is
affirmed in the Supreme Court. If we have gov-
ernors who interfere with the courts, that is the
executive branch of the government, and not the
judicial. If the courts do their duty, their whole
responsibility is ended. Let the judiciary assume
and accept the responsibility for their acts.
Mr. Darrow: Wouldn't the jury have been justi-
fied in, sentencing him to life there?
Mr. Marshall: I think not. I think with the Supreme
Court in such a case.
Mr. Darrow: The Supreme Court didn't say that
the jury would not have been justified in sending
him to the penitentiary for life.
Mr. Marshall: They say the judgment is affirmed,
do they not?
Mr. Darrow: That is all they say.
Mr. Marshall: If the court please, I wish to refer
here to a list of executions in Cook County for some
years past, giving the ages of the defendants. Richard
G. Ivens, twenty-four years of age; Andrew
Williams, twenty-two; Frank Shiblawski, twentytwo;
Ewald Shiblawski, twenty-three; Thomas
Schultz, nineteen; Philip Sommerling, thirty; Den-
nis Anderson, twenty-one; Albert Johnson, twenty-
five; Earl Dear, twenty-six; John O'Brien, twenty-
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