Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Legal History Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

PDF

2007

Death penalty

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Legal History

The Trial Of Sacco And Vanzetti, Douglas O. Linder Jan 2007

The Trial Of Sacco And Vanzetti, Douglas O. Linder

Faculty Works

Sacco and Vanzetti: for a generation of Americans, the names of the two Italian anarchists are forever linked. Questions surrounding their 1921 trial for the murders of a paymaster and his guard bitterly divided a nation. As the two convicted men and their supporters struggled on through appellate courts and clemency petitions to avoid the electric chair, public interest in their case continued to grow. As the end drew near, in August 1927, hundreds of thousands of people - from Boston and New York to London and Buenos Aires - took to the streets in protest of what they perceived …


The Leopold And Loeb Trial: A Brief Account, Douglas O. Linder Jan 2007

The Leopold And Loeb Trial: A Brief Account, Douglas O. Linder

Faculty Works

Few trial transcripts are as likely to bring tears to the eyes as that of the 1924 murder trial of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold. Decades after Clarence Darrow delivered his twelve-hour long plea to save his young clients' lives, his moving summation stands as the most eloquent attack on the death penalty ever delivered in an American courtroom. Mixing poetry and prose, science and emotion, a world-weary cynicism and a dedication to his cause, hatred of bloodlust and love of man, Darrow takes his audience on an oratorical ride that would be unimaginable in a criminal trial today. Even …