The King of Defense Attorneys

By Tom Morrow

Today there are dozens of top defense attorneys working the courts throughout the nation, but there’s little doubt most bow to the dean of lawyers for the defense: Clarence Seward Darrow.
Darrow was born April 18, 1857, in the small Ohio town and became famous in the early 20th century for his defense in highly publicized trials. Called a “sophisticated country lawyer,” Darrow’s wit and eloquence made him one of the most prominent attorneys and civil libertarians in the nation.
Darrow defended high-profile clients in many famous trials, including teen-age thrill killers Nathan Leopold, Jr., and Richard Loeb for murdering 14-year-old Robert “Bobby” Franks in 1924. And teacher John T. Scopes in the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial in which he opposed noted statesman, presidential candidate, and orator William Jennings Bryan.
Throughout his career, Darrow devoted himself to opposing the death penalty, which he felt to be in conflict with humanitarian progress. In more than 100 cases, Darrow only lost one murder case in Chicago. He became renowned for moving juries and even judges to tears with his eloquence. Chicago newspapers labeled the Leopold and Loeb case the “Trial of the Century.”
The two teenagers made full confessions and took police on a hunt around Chicago to collect the evidence that would be used against them. The state’s attorney told the press he had a “hanging case” for sure. Darrow stunned the prosecution when his clients plead guilty in order to avoid a vengeance-minded jury, placing the case before a judge.
Darrow’s closing argument lasted 12 hours. He repeatedly stressed the ages of the “boys,” noting that “never had there been a case in Chicago where on a plea of guilty a boy under 21 had been sentenced to death.” Darrow succeeded with Judge Caverly sentenced Leopold and Loeb to life in prison plus 99 years.
Darrow argued emotion is necessary for the decisions people make. When someone tries to go against a certain forbidden law or custom, the accused should feel a sense of revulsion. Darrow concluded that neither Leopold nor Loeb had a working emotional system as they did not feel “revolted.”
During the trial, the newspapers claimed that Darrow was presenting a “million-dollar defense” for the two wealthy families. Many ordinary Americans were angered at his apparent greed. He had the two families issue a statement insisting that there would be no large legal fees and that compensation would be determined by the Chicago Bar Association.
After trial, Darrow suggested $200,000 would be reasonable. After lengthy negotiations with the defendants’ families, he ended up, after expenses, getting $30,000, worth more than $380,000 in today’s money.
In 1925, Darrow defended school teacher John T. Scopes in the State of Tennessee v. Scopes trial, probably his most famous trial. It often is referred to as the “Scopes Monkey Trial,” a title popularized by noted newspaperman H.L. Mencken of the Baltimore Sun.
The trial, which was deliberately staged to bring publicity to the question of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, pitted Darrow once again against William Jennings Bryan. The question tested Tennessee’s newly past Butler Act, which forbade the teaching of Evolution in any state-funded educational establishment. More broadly, it outlawed the teaching of “any theory that denies the story of the “Divine Creation” as taught in the Bible.
During the trial, Darrow requested that Bryan be called to the stand as an expert witness on the Bible. Over the other prosecutor’s objection, Bryan agreed. The popular media at the time portrayed Darrow’s grilling of Bryan as the deciding factor that turned public opinion in favor the teacher Scopes. After about two hours, Judge John T. Raulston cut the Darrow’s questioning short and on the following morning ordered the whole session be expunged from the record, ruling Bryan’s testimony that “every word in the Bible was to be believed” and had no bearing on whether Scopes was guilty of teaching the controversial subject. Scopes was found guilty and ordered to pay the minimum fine of $100.
A year later, the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed Raulston’s decision on a procedural technicality — not on constitutional grounds, as Darrow had hoped. The Tennessee high court dismissed the case, commenting “… nothing is to be gained by prolonging the life of this bizarre case.”
The event led to a change in public sentiment and became popularized in a play based loosely on the trial, and the 1960 film “Inherit the Wind,” with Spencer Tracy and Fredric March.
Today, Clarence Darrow is remembered for his reputation as a fierce litigator and is generally regarded as one of the greatest criminal defense lawyers in American history. Darrow died on March 13, 1938, of pulmonary heart disease, and is buried in Chicago.
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