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Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom
"Clarence Darrow [was] perhaps the most effective courtroom opponent of cant, bigotry, and special privilege that our country has produced. All of Darrow's most celebrated pleas are here—in defense of Leopold and Loeb (1924), of Lieutenant Massie (1932), of Big Bill Haywood (1907), of Thomas Scopes (1925), and of himself for attempted bribery."—The New Yorker
576 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1901
About the author
Clarence Darrow
183 books59 followersin 1857, Clarence Darrow, later dubbed "Attorney for the Damned" and "the Great Defender," was born. For a time he lived in an Ohio home that had served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. His father was known as the "village infidel." Darrow attended the University of Michigan Law School for one year, then passed the bar in 1878 and moved to Chicago. There he joined protests against the trumped-up charges against four radicals accused in the Haymarket Riot case. Darrow became corporate counsel to the City of Chicago, then counsel for the North Western Railway. He quit this lucrative post when he could no longer defend their treatment of injured workers, then went on to defend without pay Socialist striker Eugene V. Debs. In 1907, Darrow successfully defended labor activist "Big Bill" Haywood, charged with assassinating a former governor. His passionate denunciation of the death penalty prompted him to defend the famous killers, Loeb and Leopold, who received life sentences in 1924.
His most celebrated case was the Scopes Trial, defending teacher John Scopes in Dayton, Tenn., who was charged with the crime of teaching evolution in the public schools. Darrow's brilliant cross-examination of prosecuting attorney William Jennings Bryan lives on in legal history. During the trial, Darrow said: "I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure—that is all that agnosticism means." Darrow wrote many freethought articles and edited a freethought collection. His two appealing autobiographies are The Story of My Life (1932), containing his plainspoken views on religion, and Farmington (1932). He also wrote Resist Not Evil (1902), An Eye for An Eye (1905), and Crime, Its Causes and Treatments (1925). His freethought writings are collected into Why I Am an Agnostic and Other Essays. He told The New York Times, "Religion is the belief in future life and in God. I don't believe in either" (April 19, 1936). D. 1938.
More: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/monkeytr...
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/index.php?
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history...
His most celebrated case was the Scopes Trial, defending teacher John Scopes in Dayton, Tenn., who was charged with the crime of teaching evolution in the public schools. Darrow's brilliant cross-examination of prosecuting attorney William Jennings Bryan lives on in legal history. During the trial, Darrow said: "I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure—that is all that agnosticism means." Darrow wrote many freethought articles and edited a freethought collection. His two appealing autobiographies are The Story of My Life (1932), containing his plainspoken views on religion, and Farmington (1932). He also wrote Resist Not Evil (1902), An Eye for An Eye (1905), and Crime, Its Causes and Treatments (1925). His freethought writings are collected into Why I Am an Agnostic and Other Essays. He told The New York Times, "Religion is the belief in future life and in God. I don't believe in either" (April 19, 1936). D. 1938.
More: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/monkeytr...
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/index.php?
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 11, 2015
Transcripts of his closing arguments, all of which were delivered without notes. Passionate as hell. They say he never opened a law book; he argued and won by appealing to morality alone. The man was a philosopher and a student (professor?) of the human condition. An extremely important and worthwhile book.
Darrow represented everyone from a couple kids who killed a young boy (and were facing the death penalty), to a black person who killed a white man in self defence, to a teacher arrested for teaching evolution in the south, to unions who faced strike-breakers. His speeches were no holds barred. In the union speech, for example, he went on at length about how and why communism is awesome. He was brilliant and compelling.
I've bought the book about 5 times because I keep losing it.
There are two books titled "Attorney for the Damned" -- make sure to buy this one. The other one is totally different.
Darrow represented everyone from a couple kids who killed a young boy (and were facing the death penalty), to a black person who killed a white man in self defence, to a teacher arrested for teaching evolution in the south, to unions who faced strike-breakers. His speeches were no holds barred. In the union speech, for example, he went on at length about how and why communism is awesome. He was brilliant and compelling.
I've bought the book about 5 times because I keep losing it.
There are two books titled "Attorney for the Damned" -- make sure to buy this one. The other one is totally different.
March 5, 2009
This compilation of "greatest hits" from Darrow's trials is a great read. Darrow's eloquence is extraordinary. Many classic moments are here: Darrow's cross-examination of William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes trial (some of which was lifted, almost verbatim, in "Inherit the Wind"); Darrow's plea for the lives of Leopold and Loeb during their infamous murder trial and much more.
April 1, 2017
Clarence Darrow was certainly an effective defense attorney whose eloquent closing arguments were a huge part of his record of success. I found myself spellbound reading the earlier chapters of this collection of his arguments, but as I continued to read further I felt as if it were "deja vu all over again" so I can easily say, as a book, Attorney For The Damned, fell short of my expectations.
October 7, 2023
"I really do not in the least believe in crime. There is no such thing as a crime as the word is generally understood. I do not believe there is any sort of distinction between the real moral conditions of the people in and out of jail."
F*** you, Darrow. You deserve a one-star just for saying that. It is true that Darrow lived before the era in which sociopathy and psychopathy had been codified by psychiatrists, but there is no way any man of common sense could associate with criminals for his entire career, listen to their confessions, lies, and excuses, while going over every speck of available evidence in the courtroom, and still believe that heinous crimes, criminals, and evil do not exist.
You have to be dumber than pig drool to believe that.
But when scumbags are paying your salary, you'll say anything. Even a good man's soul can be bought by a dirtbag's money.
F*** you, Darrow. You deserve a one-star just for saying that. It is true that Darrow lived before the era in which sociopathy and psychopathy had been codified by psychiatrists, but there is no way any man of common sense could associate with criminals for his entire career, listen to their confessions, lies, and excuses, while going over every speck of available evidence in the courtroom, and still believe that heinous crimes, criminals, and evil do not exist.
You have to be dumber than pig drool to believe that.
But when scumbags are paying your salary, you'll say anything. Even a good man's soul can be bought by a dirtbag's money.
August 1, 2022
Clarence Darrow's most profound defenses. He has always been a hero of mine for the Leopold and Loeb and Scopes monkey trials, but learning about his other cases solidified him in my mind as a great American hero, ahead of his time.
May 27, 2012
A liberal, he wan many cases appealing to the jury's emotions. This is an interesting collection of cases that could today go the other way. For example the "unwritten law" today seems like a replay of the Duke Rape Case. He husbands rage and murderous deed - equally as dangerous as vilgilante justice - and certainly not with the help of his enlisted men. This cases is today - inconceivable - but it does paint a very useful picture on how to play a jury, of which Darrow (except in his own defense) was very capable.
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September 23, 2010Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom by Clarence Darrow (1989)
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews