Evening star., 1924-07-25
DARROW MAKING
( FIGHT OF CAREER
Noted Criminal Lawyer
Brings Vast Experience to
Defense of Youths.
HITS CAPITAL PENALTY
Will Always Fight to Save Any
Man From .Gallows, He
I Declares.
BY Consolidated Press.

BY Consolidated Press.
Chicago, July 25.--The master legal
strategist, Clarence S. Darrow, is
playing waiting game as the State
unfolds the mass of evidence upon
which it bases it's demand for the
lives of Richard Loeb and Nathan
Leopold, jr. He is prepared to strike
telling blows at the prosecution when
he uniooses the forces of the defense
in the first court attempt to save
these boy slayers from the gallows.
What appears to be silent acqui-
escence on his part during the time
the State is tightening its seemingly
impenetrable net about the killers is
hut the quiet before the storm. a life
time of experience as counsel for the
defense in great criminal trials has
shaped the strategy of this final
piay-probably the last that Dar-
row will make to save the under
dog" Out of that experience is COM
ing the legal thrusts that he is count
ing on to puncture the States case
and bring Incarceration instead of
death for the boys he is defending.
In court as he lays the foundation for
possible appeals, Darrow is scarcely
less interesting than the polished
dandies whose lives he is trying to
save. Aging, now over 81, stopped,
with thinned hair and somewhat
Eaunt features, in MS rather care
1eSSly fitted clothes, this most notable
of criminal lawyers offers a sharp
n he millionaire
killers under his care.
Fighting Last Battle.
barrow is lighting what is expected
10 be his last great case. Here again
his battle is to sustain conviction
that capital punishment never is
justified.
Every effort will be made to pre-
vent hanging" said Darrow today.
II will never permit any man to hang
SO long as there is anything in the
world / can do to save him.
Darrow saved the lives of the Nc
Eamara brothers, bombers of the Los
Angeles Times Building, in 1911. He
saved Big Bill Haywood, Meyer and
Pettibone from the galloWs in 1907,
after they had been charged with
killing former Gov. Steunenburg of
Idaho. Previously he had sue
cessfully defended Eugene V. Debs
after his activities in the railroad
strike of 1894. His court activities as
attorney against the state have run
through famous trials for nearly 40
years.
From out of that career has come
the knowledge that is Shaping his
strategy in the LoebLeopold trial.
Accepting the state presentation of
facts without contradiction or objec
tion, the defense plans are carrying
along for the grand finish.
To Advance Insanity Plea.
Alienists for the State are to start
the trend toward the climax and bring
the barrow force into the open for
the first time. Through his mar
shaled psychiatrists he counts on
building a theory of emotional in
sanity that will convince Judge John
r. Caverly. who holds the lives of
the boys in his hands, that their
crime was the result of mental ir-
responsibility and should be punished
only by life imprisonment
TO cap this the veteran criminal
attorney is to make plea of his
own that may be the greatest of his
career-a career dotted with juries
and courts brought to tears by the
appeal of the Darrow word pictures.
But the battle the defense has ar
ranged centers solely about the men
tai responsibility of the two slayers.
Scientific explanations of the reasons
why minds of studious brilliance
should revert to murder simply for
4 thrill may save these lives. Fail
ing, however, the defense that Dar-
row has built, is prepared to go to
higher courts and to bring in new
points that may take years to de-
termine what the fate of the slayers
shall bc