Verdicts Out of Court

by Clarence Darrow

This remarkable collection of the great attorney's writings reveals why he was such a force in the court of law and in the court of public opinion. Darrow turned to writing―essays, debates, fiction―to influence a broader audience beyond the field of law. Through his observations on such social issues as race, revolution, labor, divorce, crime, war, and religion, and his estimates of men and women, he became the attorney for the public conscience. His beliefs, delivered with an urbane blending of wit, lawyer's logic, satire, and sentiment, remain a part of our continuing social philosophy. They are amply illustrated in this superb collection, and remain strikingly pertinent today. “Fascinating.…Whether Darrow is condemning capital punishment, questioning immortality, or extolling free trade, he is usually incisive, never boring, and always unafraid of speaking his mind. A rare combination in his or any other age.”―William M. Kunstler, New York Times . “A fascinating collection of Darrow's writings, showing the wide range and the impact of his thinking on the American character.”―Irving Stone.

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

in 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...

Reviews

[Jackson Burnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

People tend to forget that Clarence Darrow lost the Scopes case. They also tend to forget (or may not have known) that Darrow was an outspoken progressive humanist as well as a renown criminal defense lawyer.

This collection of essays, speeches, and debates demonstrates the breadth of Darrow's knowledge and the acuity of his thinking. In this book, Darrow addresses such topics as immigration, race relations, trade unionism, war and peace, religion, philosophy, and literature. Some of the writings are over one hundred years old and feel dated; most, however, are timeless.

In his old age, Darrow was a staunch defender of youth. He had little patience with geezers complaining that the kids of today are no good. We hear the same thing now. Darrow was right then; he would be right now as well.