Excerpt from The Plea of Clarence Darrow, August 22nd, 23rd and 25th, 1924, in Defense of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold Jr., On Trial for Murder Harvard, he was to take a trip to Europe and had already purchased his ticket for the ocean voyage. Loeb was the youngest graduate of the University of Michigan and was intending to study law. Both Leo pold and Loeb had always been well supplied with money and there was no financial reason why they should have committed either the crime of kidnaping or that of mur der. When the body of Robert Franks was placed in the culvert, the eye glasses of Leopold dropped from his pocket and, after several other arrests, these were found by the police and identified as Leopold's glasses. At the time of their arrest, no one believed that they had any thing to do with the kidnaping and killing. They were taken to the State's Attorney's office and after being in the custody of the attorneys and officers for about sixty hours, they confessed to the full details of the crime. It was claimed by the defense that their minds were diseased and also that on account of their extreme youth, they should not be hanged. The Illinois statutes provide that on a verdict or plea of guilty, a defendant may be sentenced to death or to a term in the penitentiary for not less than fourteen years and up to life. The statute also provides that on a plea of guilty, In all cases where the court possesses any discretion as to the extent of the punishment, it shall be the duty of the court to examine witnesses as to the aggravation and mitigation of the offense. The defendants in this case pleaded guilty before Judge Caverly; thereupon evidence was offered both by the State and the defense on the question of aggravation and mitigation. Alienists were introduced by both sides, touching the mental condition of the two boys. The hearing occupied about thirty days. The defend ants were sentenced to the penitentiary for life. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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This is the memorable plea made by renowned lawyer Clarence Darrow in defense of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Darrow's clients, known by the press generally as "Leopold and Loeb" were just young men themselves when they committed a heinous act. The pair murdered a young boy named Bobby Franks, and the shocking crime and trial captivated not only Chicago, but the entire country.