The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
But your Honor may hear evidence in mitigation.
To do this it is necessary to pass upon the offender.
Let me illustrate. A man who believes his wife
has been seduced by another, kills that other man.
The anti-social consequences of that act are the
same as if he had had no such belief in his mind at
the time of the killing. The other man has been
killed, and the shooting was done with malice.
But, under the statute, in fixing the punishment,
your Honor looks to see if there was anything lessen-
ing the turpitude of the offender. Was there some-
thing in his reaction to a given situation which
creates a circumstance which the court ought to
consider in mitigation of the punishment?
There are many persons who walk the streets who
are subject to mental disease falling short of the
legal definition of insanity, and when one of these
persons commits a homicide and admits the crime,
the question as to whether or not there is any mitiga-
tion requires an assessment of the circumstances
pertaining to the character of the offender.
Now there is an analogy, if your Honor please,
between mental disease and youth. Youth in a
criminal is a mitigating circumstance. Youth in-
volves a question of stress and strain of puberty and
adolescence. Your Honor will recall some of the
evidence in this case to the effect that a child is born
without morals, and as a result of education, teach-
ing by others, he in time acquires a sense of moral
values.
93