CBA Record January-February 2025

Clarence Darrow and the Leopold and Loeb Case: Legal Ethics in Action

By Judge Jasmine V. Hernandez, Circuit Court of Cook County, and Mohammad Barakat, Law Clerk to Judge E. Kenneth Wright, Jr. C BA Municipal and the Law Committee recently hosted James Grogan to discuss legal ethics, specifically con flicts of interest. Grogan’s presentation highlighted lawyer

Clarence Darrow and his representation of Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb in 1924, when the young men were accused of kidnapping and killing 14-year-old Bobby Franks. Grogan, an Illinois lawyer and educator, now concentrates his practice in professional responsibility and legal ethics law after retiring in 2019 as the Deputy Administrator and Chief Counsel of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois (ARDC). He also serves as an adjunct professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. In the summer of 1924, Darrow took on the case of both Leo pold and Loeb, the teenage sons of two wealthy Chicago families who were accused of kidnapping Franks from their Kenwood neighborhood and killing him. Despite this obvious conflict of interest and accompanying ethical concerns, Darrow gave proper disclosures and received informed consent from both clients. Grogan noted that their consent may not have been given had Leopold and Loeb not thought so highly of themselves. Leopold was a law student at the University of Chicago about to transfer to Harvard Law School. Loeb was the youngest gradu ate ever from the University of Michigan; they were 19 and 18, respectively, when they were arrested. Believing themselves to be more intelligent than the rest of the world, they planned to commit a murder and get away with it, thereby demonstrating their superior intellect. After scheming for months, Leopold and Loeb decided their perfect murder involved kidnapping a boy and making people believe that he was taken for ransom and would not be killed— although in actuality, the child would already be dead. Armed with their supposedly fail-safe plan, the defendants selected their victim, Franks, their neighbor who happened to be outside the day they implemented their scheme. After some convincing, the defendants lured Franks into their vehicle where one drove the vehicle to a predetermined location near Hammond, Indi ana, while the other attacked Franks. After disposing of Franks’ body, the defendants returned to Chicago and made their ransom demand. However, the body was discovered earlier than they anticipated by a passing workman. This early discovery foiled their plan to collect the ransom. Also, police found a pair of glasses near Franks’ body that they assumed belonged to the boy. However, Franks never wore glasses. This revelation and the ensu ing investigation ultimately led officers to Leopold and Loeb. Both men were questioned; they had picked up two women

in Chicago using Leopold’s car, then dropped them off some time later when they could not get what they wanted from them sexually. Their alibi was later exposed as a lie when Leopold’s chauffeur told police that he was repairing Leopold’s car while the men claimed to be using it. They both later confessed to the murder. Loeb was the first to confess; he asserted that Leopold had planned everything and had killed Franks in the backseat of the car while he, Loeb, drove. Leopold’s confession followed shortly thereafter; he insisted that he was the driver and Loeb the murderer. Their confessions otherwise corroborated most of the evidence in the case. Despite a clear conflict of interest and ethical dilemma, Darrow represented both Leopold and Loeb. Between the evi dence against the boys and their confessions, Darrow informed them it was in their best interest to plea, otherwise possibly face the death penalty. Darrow’s closing argument to the judge during sentencing lasted 12 hours; he stressed that no one under the age of 21 had been given the death penalty in Illinois. Ultimately, both defendants were sentenced to life in prison. Years later, Loeb died in prison after being stabbed; Leopold was eventually paroled in the 1950s. Led by co-chairs Judge E. Kenneth Wright, Jr. and Nicholas Frisone, the CBA Municipal and the Law Committee meets in person the first Wednesday of every month. To join the commit tee, sign up at www.chicagobar.org or send an email to Meredith Loehr at mloehr@chicagobar.org.

16 January/February 2025

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