In Defense Of Clarence Darrow And The Monkey Trial

University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks. While it is debated whether or not they intended to murder Franks, it is known that they were attempting to pull off the perfect crime, where no one would ever find out it was them who did it (Knappman). Things did not work out so well for the two, though. Robert Crowe, the state’s attorney, shortly found evidence that made them the leading suspects. Within 10 days of the murder, Leopold and Loeb confessed and demonstrated to Crowe how they killed Bobby Franks. Crowe later said it was “the most complete case ever presented to a grand or petit jury” (Baatz). The odds looked stacked against the two, and capital punishment seemed

With that money, they chose one of the most popular defense attorneys at the time, Clarence Darrow. At the time, Darrow was one of, if not the most popular criminal lawyer in the nation. He is most known for his defense in the famous ‘Monkey Trial’, and also saved around 50 other accused murderers from execution, many of which were beyond a doubt guilty (Knappman). He made the decision to have the defendants plead guilty in order to avoid a grand jury, and have the sentencing and verdict come directly from Judge Caverly himself. Darrow’s goal was to keep his defendants from getting the death sentence by asking the judge to consider their age, their guilty plea, and their mental condition (Baatz). During the trials closing arguments, he gave a famous 12-hour plea to spare Leopold and Loeb from hanging. He cited the defendants’ youth, genetic inheritance, and the many external influences that had led them to commit the crime (Linder). Leopold and Loeb were also able to afford some of the best psychiatric talents in the country to testify for them and argue that they were mentally ill, which would potentially mitigate their

Going into the trial, Darrow based his defense on his opinion of Judge Caverly, who he described as a “kindly and discerning” man (Linder). He was right in his judgment when Caverly later stated “I want to give you all the leeway I can… I’d like to be advised as fully as possible”. (Knappman). Despite never entering a plea of insanity, Caverly allowed a psychiatric analysis to be performed on the defendants so that he could consider it in his sentencing. After Darrow’s famous plea for his defendant’s lives, where in one part he said that Caverly stood between the past and future – the past of barbarism, hatred, and cruelty, and a future of mercy; Caverly was left in tears and was torn over how he should sentence Leopold and Loeb (Knappman). It took Judge Caverly two days to come to a verdict and decided on life in prison for murder plus 99 years for kidnapping as punishment for the defendants. He cited the possible benefits to criminology, he thought life in prison might be worse than death for the two, and mainly was moved “chiefly by the age of the defendants”.