Clarence Darrow, widely regarded as America’s greatest criminal defense attorney, experienced perhaps the most remarkable years of his career in 1924 and 1925. Already a famous lawyer, Darrow agreed to represent clients in two extraordinary “trials of the century.” In 1924, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two young and wealthy Chicagoans, admitted to the premeditated killing of a 14-year-old boy, Bobby Franks, purely for “the thrill” of it.
The Cook County prosecutor demanded the death penalty, arguing that the heinous murder justified the harshest punishment. Darrow’s impassioned, 12-hour plea at the sentencing hearing successfully persuaded the judge that the men were too young to be executed. A year later, Darrow joined the fray in the Scopes “Monkey” Trial, which pitted the theory of evolution against a literalist interpretation of the Bible in a trial that attracted worldwide attention. Darrow defended John T. Scopes, a Tennessee biology teacher who violated state law by teaching Darwin’s theory to high school students. Although the court found Scopes guilty, Darrow’s reputation as a masterful advocate and a social critic who defended free speech and science was further enhanced.
The Law Library houses the preeminent national collection of letters, books, and other writings related to the life and career of Clarence Darrow. Of particular importance are numerous items connected to the Leopold and Loeb case and the Scopes Trial, which shed light on Darrow’s work, attitudes, and relationships. As he wrote later in a letter to Nathan Leopold, “I know that the merit of life is within us and man is a wonderfully adaptable animal.” The quote reveals some of Darrow’s compassion, hope, and rationalism.
Darrow’s record as a freethinker and an agnostic certainly made him an ideal choice to lead the defense of John T. Scopes one year later.
In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Scopes Trial, the Law Library will mount an exhibit in spring 2025 to celebrate the legendary courtroom drama and Darrow’s role in it,
with material to contextualize the groundbreaking showdown between evolution and fundamentalism.
The exhibit will include copies of the briefs submitted in Scopes’s appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court, a handwritten draft brief by ACLU general counsel Arthur Garfield Hays, and expert witness statements from academic scientists that were read into the trial record.
The exhibit will also illuminate the role of William Jennings Bryan, with a letter from his political career, and will feature letters written by John Scopes to Darrow, shedding light on Scopes’s life after the trial. Though Scopes lost his appeal, the case inspired weighty debates about educational freedom and the role of religion in public schools. Tennessee’s Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of any theory that denied the Biblical creation account, influenced and was echoed in the legislation of other states. More than 20 states defeated laws against teaching evolution until anti-evolution statutes were found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1968. The exhibit will chart the fascinating history of the case and explore popular responses to the important issues it raised.