Why Darrow, Why Now?
Although Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) made his legal reputation in the first half of the 20th Century, he remains the most revered and best known American trial lawyer, an iconic figure to the public and the legal profession alike. A Passion for Justice is a one actor play that relies primarily on Darrow’s own words to describe his career and illuminate why he still inspires both today, almost 80 years after his death.
A primary reason is that Darrow was a man ahead of his time in one key respect: he recognized that the courtroom was a powerful tool for social and policy change. His most celebrated and remembered cases involved issues that extended far beyond the interests of particular clients to the future of American society and justice, right into today’s headlines.
In his defense of teenage thrill killers Leopold and Loeb, he made the definitive argument against capital punishment, relying not on the ineffectiveness of executions or their potential for injustice, but rather by arguing that the persistence of the practice only impeded the progress of civilization:
A primary reason is that Darrow was a man ahead of his time in one key respect: he recognized that the courtroom was a powerful tool for social and policy change. His most celebrated and remembered cases involved issues that extended far beyond the interests of particular clients to the future of American society and justice, right into today’s headlines.
In his defense of teenage thrill killers Leopold and Loeb, he made the definitive argument against capital punishment, relying not on the ineffectiveness of executions or their potential for injustice, but rather by arguing that the persistence of the practice only impeded the progress of civilization:
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…I am pleading for life, understanding, charity, kindness, and the infinite mercy that considers all. I am pleading that we overcome cruelty with kindness, and hatred with love. I know the future is on my side. You may hang these boys; you may hang them by the neck until they are dead. But in doing it you will turn your face toward the past. In doing it you are making it harder for every other boy who in ignorance and darkness must grope his way through the mazes which only childhood knows. You may save them and make it easier for every child that sometime may stand where these boys stand. You will make it easier for every human being with an aspiration and a vision and a hope and a fate. I am pleading for the future; I am pleading for a time when hatred and cruelty will not control the hearts of men.
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In his victory on behalf of a black family accused of murder while protecting their home against an armed mob, Darrow offered an all-white jury the opportunity to be a positive force in the inevitable struggle for racial harmony:
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…The law has made [the black man] equal, but man has not. And, after all, the last analysis is what has man done, and not what has the law done. I know there is a long road ahead of him before he can take the place which I believe he should take. I know that before him there is suffering, sorrow, tribulation and death among the blacks, and perhaps the whites. I am sorry: I would do what I could to avert it. I would advise patience; I would advise toleration; I would advise understanding. I would advise all of those things which are necessary for men who live together… These black faces now are looking to you twelve white, feeling that the hopes and fears of a race are in your keeping… Not one of their color sits on this jury. Their fate is in the hands of twelve white. Their eyes are fixed on you, their hearts go out to you, and their hopes hang on your verdict.
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And in his epic confrontation with William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes Trial, on behalf of freedom of thought and against religious censorship in education, he sounded the clarion call for the battle that still rages across our nation:
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…Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding. Always they are feeding and gloating for more. Today it is the public school teachers, tomorrow the private. The next day the preachers and the lecturers, the magazines, the books, the newspapers. After a while, Your Honor, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed, until with flying banners and beating drums, we are marching backward to the glorious ages of the sixteenth century when bigots lighted torches to burn the men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind!
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In the midst of all this, Darrow was a master of courtroom technique, and all that implies. He was a master of courtroom trickery and jury psychology, an innovator, an orator, and above all, a warrior who believed almost anything was justified in the representation of a client. In this his life and career raise provocative questions about what it means to be a lawyer.
If there was a theme to Darrow’s life, it was the opposition to power and its abuses. His heroes were rebels, martyrs, and even terrorists like John Brown. He distrusted all institutions, governments, elected officials, the church, and especially the law, which he believed throughout recorded history had allowed the powerful to oppress the poor, the ignorant, and the unlucky. For this reason, he was open to almost any tactic or strategy on behalf of his parade of victimized clients, because he was convinced that the system had been stacked against them for centuries.
Darrow therefore is one of the most fascinating of all American figures for the study of ethics…not merely legal ethics, but ethics itself, the nature of right and wrong. He was a fierce utilitarian, only grudgingly obeying any rules and eager to aim directly at the grand purpose of a struggle, with little interest in the carnage along the way. He was a cynic, an atheist and a pessimist, yet he spoke and wrote stirringly of the capacity for greatness in all human beings. Convinced that human existence was ultimately a futile exercise, he deeply felt the worth of each individual life, and embraced the philosophical ideals of American democracy.
Darrow disproved his own predictions about the futility of his own life. He represents the unbroken line of progressive ideals, from the Underground Railroad stop where he was raised, straight through to the Dover School Board case, the debates over affirmative action, assisted suicide and stem cell research, civil rights and racial injustice, and of course, capital punishment. Today, as shown by the contentious arguments over Judge Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court, Darrow’s belief in the power of the law to define our society has come to be accepted as fact. Were Darrow alive today, he’d have a ball.
And he’d be a handful.
This, even more than when he was alive, is Clarence Darrow’s era. There is no better time to make his acquaintance.
If there was a theme to Darrow’s life, it was the opposition to power and its abuses. His heroes were rebels, martyrs, and even terrorists like John Brown. He distrusted all institutions, governments, elected officials, the church, and especially the law, which he believed throughout recorded history had allowed the powerful to oppress the poor, the ignorant, and the unlucky. For this reason, he was open to almost any tactic or strategy on behalf of his parade of victimized clients, because he was convinced that the system had been stacked against them for centuries.
Darrow therefore is one of the most fascinating of all American figures for the study of ethics…not merely legal ethics, but ethics itself, the nature of right and wrong. He was a fierce utilitarian, only grudgingly obeying any rules and eager to aim directly at the grand purpose of a struggle, with little interest in the carnage along the way. He was a cynic, an atheist and a pessimist, yet he spoke and wrote stirringly of the capacity for greatness in all human beings. Convinced that human existence was ultimately a futile exercise, he deeply felt the worth of each individual life, and embraced the philosophical ideals of American democracy.
Darrow disproved his own predictions about the futility of his own life. He represents the unbroken line of progressive ideals, from the Underground Railroad stop where he was raised, straight through to the Dover School Board case, the debates over affirmative action, assisted suicide and stem cell research, civil rights and racial injustice, and of course, capital punishment. Today, as shown by the contentious arguments over Judge Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court, Darrow’s belief in the power of the law to define our society has come to be accepted as fact. Were Darrow alive today, he’d have a ball.
And he’d be a handful.
This, even more than when he was alive, is Clarence Darrow’s era. There is no better time to make his acquaintance.