Chapter 48 Section 23

The second issue Krazhin wants to talk about is people's talk about the "million dollar defense". “We have publicly told you that we will never pay top dollar for experts or do anything else in our case. We are here to say publicly again that we have kept that promise. "Crazhin claims that the defense expert witnesses are paid exactly the same as the prosecution experts. "If our side loses this case, it won't be because of too little money, but because of too much money," said Claren. If Nathan and Richard were the children of two poor families, Illinois No prosecutor in the U.S. will ask a judge to impose the death penalty after they plead "guilty."

In fact, Claren Darrow points out, never in the history of Illinois has a defendant under the age of 30 been sentenced to death after pleading guilty. "However, in the past few months, all I have heard is blood for blood, all I have heard is hatred intensified by the Attorney General's office, and all I have heard is people constantly citing the Primitive torture with no humanity at all. All I hear is that people are constantly urging the court to hang the two children. the ages of the defendants." Crazen cites several statistics, citing 90 hanging verdicts in Chicago's history, of which only three defendants pleaded "guilty."And in the past 30 years, "a total of 350 people in Chicago were charged with murder and pleaded 'guilty', and only one of them was hanged." Friend of the Chief Prosecutor in this case. But mind you, his 'victim' is over 40 years old."

Attorney Robert Corolle cast a savage glance at his opponent on hearing this. Dr. Darrow went on to say: "In the cases I have handled, the public prosecutor's description of the case is always 'the most cold-blooded, the most terrifying, the most murderous, the most unforgivable' and so on." "If it is a If it is a murder case, it must be the bloodiest so far. If it is a robbery, it must be the scariest so far. If it is a conspiracy, it must be the most sinister so far.” Krazhen said bluntly, In his experience, the Bobby Fanks murder wasn't exactly brutal, even though the murder itself was. "Poor little Bobby actually didn't suffer too much. From the moment he got in the car, it was all over within 15 minutes."

Claren Darrow once again analyzed the motive of the public prosecution for the second criminal's "seeking ransom", "These two children who have never known what it is like to be short of money, will kill for a mere $10,000?" "No, all of this It's not about the money. It's all just a senseless, purposeless, useless, and motivating prank by two kids." Clara enumerates the details of Nathan and Richard's crimes: They stayed near Harvard for a long time in order to find targets, but they didn't realize that almost everyone there would recognize them; Fanks' site was within sight of the Fanks' home, unaware that "there could be eyes behind any window around"; they carried the body nearly 20 miles through the bustling downtown area , even stopped for dinner, without realizing it at all: "The slightest mistake, the slightest negligence, the slightest accident, even the slightest bit of bad luck, even a trivial traffic violation, It may bring them a catastrophe of death and destruction." "What is all this for? Nothing! As far as I can think, only the crazy behavior of that fool in "King Lear" can be compared with my own. The two clients are comparable." Afterwards, they talked about the case with friends, reporters, and even the police. "Nobody believed that a sane person would do such a stupid thing. The only explanation for all this can only be that there is something wrong with their nerves." "What they did throughout this case, there is not a single thing It's normal human behavior."

"When all the details of this case have been presented to the court, the position of the prosecution remains that if the two defendants are not hanged, the entire universe will collapse. I must say that in my decades of career , I have never seen such a fervor for the death penalty, although there have been thousands of murders before this one that were infinitely more horrific than this one, and the motives are sinister. Yes, there have been thousands of them before, and maybe in the future There will be thousands more, whether these two boys are hanged or in prison. If hanging them prevents more murders in the future, I may hang them with my own hands. In fact, if killing one is true I would be in favor of all executions, as long as the hanged person is not myself. But honestly, I don't think so. Because I know that things that should happen will happen, just like they did. Same thing, at least as far as the subject is concerned.”

"Our law includes flexible conditions for consideration of commutation, one of which is age. Why?" Dr. Darrow looked around, and then asked himself, "It's very simple, because it is impossible for children to make peace with life and society. Judgments and decisions like adults." "We've all been young, we all know that children's heads are full of fantasies, we all know they live in dreamlike worlds, and we all know that in children's worlds, not everything is real. We also know Many children do not know how to cherish, appreciate, respect, and take responsibility. Because they are still naive, they still need the guidance of adults. Because they are still weak, they still need the protection of adults. Now sit In the dock, there are two such children, one is 18 years old and the other is 19 years old (Krazhin made a small mistake here. Richard Lowe's birthday is June There is also an explanation that Claren refers to their age at the time of committing the crime—the author’s note). The law does not allow them to sign contracts, marry without their parents’ consent, and vote for elections. Why? Because they are immature, do not have sound judgment, and therefore cannot take full responsibility for their actions." In 1924, the legal age to vote was 21.