Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom

by Clarence Darrow, William O. Douglas (Foreword), Arthur Weinberg (Editor)

Courtroom summations by “one of America’s greatest lawyers . . . this book is better than an entire college course in Rhetoric” (Thomas Geoghegan, author of The Secret Lives of Citizens and Only One Thing Can Save Us).   A famous defender of the underdog, the oppressed, and the powerless, Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) is one of the true legends of the American legal system. His cases were many and various, but all were marked by his unequivocal sense of justice, as well as his penchant for representing infamous and unpopular clients, such as the Chicago thrill-killers Leopold and Loeb; Ossian Sweet, the African American doctor charged with murder after fighting off a violent, white mob in Detroit; and John T. Scopes, the teacher on trial in the famous Scopes Monkey Trial.   Published for the first time in 1957, Attorney for the Damned collects Darrow’s most influential summations and supplements them with scene-setting explanations and comprehensive notes by Arthur Weinberg. Darrow confronts issues that remain relevant over half a century after his First Amendment rights, capital punishment, and the separation of church and state. With an insightful forward by Justice William O. Douglas, this volume serves as a powerful reminder of Darrow’s relevance today.   “Clarence Darrow [was] perhaps the most effective courtroom opponent of cant, bigotry, and special privilege that our country has produced . . . The ghastly comedy of his deadpan interrogation of William Jennings Bryan on the origin of man in the Scopes case is particularly recommended.” —The New Yorker   “More illuminating as well as more dramatic than anything that has yet appeared about [Darrow].” —Herald Tribune Book Review

Genres: Nonfiction, Law, History, Biography, Politics

578 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1901

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

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Spectre · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Avis Black · Rating 1 out of 5]

"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.

[Courtney Skelton · Rating 3 out of 5]

When you look up the word tenacious in the dictionary, it should have Clarence Darrow’s picture in the description. Unbelievably well read, and passionate about helping his clients with every thing he has. He did lose me sometimes with the phrases he used, but that doesn’t change one thing. If I had the chance to have any lawyer in history defend me, I would choose Clarence every time.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Craig Bolton]

Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom by Clarence Darrow (1989)