Summary Of The Defenseless: Clarence Darrow

The Defense of the Defenseless
“If anybody finds anything in this life that brings them consolation and health and happiness, I think they ought to have it”(Linder para 8). This quote came from defensive lawyer Clarence Darrow. Darrow felt that everyone was entitled to life, freedom of thought, and a second chance. To guarantee everyone got their second chance, freedom of thought, and continuance of life, he would take their cases to the court where he used his creative speeches and new ideas to help his clients receive acquittals or save their lives. Clarence Darrow was a creative and persistent lawyer who defended all against death, racism, and the freedom to say what you want. Clarence Darrow held a reputation for obtaining acquittals …show more content…
Darrow would pick the trials that no one would take and no one felt they could win. Once Darrow said,”When it comes to human beings, I am color blind; to me people are not simply white or black; they are all freckled.”(Stone pg 530). So, when the Sweet case came up, Darrow knew that he could not pass it up. The case took place in Detroit, where the blacks were confined into three different wards. These wards were packed tightly and running out of room quickly. Since these wards were packed, some African-American families began to expand and live outside the wards. One of these families was the Sweet family. The Sweet family purchased a home in a foreign born section of a neighborhood. From the beginning, the Sweets had been receiving threats if they moved into the home that trouble would happen. Dr. Sweet, the head of the household, decided they had to move into the home to prove a point. The night after the Sweet family moved in, a mob of about four hundred people gathered across the street. The mob began throwing stones at the house and finally, a gun was shot from inside the house. One man was killed and another man was injured. The police ran inside and arrested all ten men and one woman for murder. The case had Darrow’s name written all over it. The first action Judge Murphy took was to release Mrs.Sweet on bail. Darrow’s first duty was to carefully select his jury. He spent three weeks picking out each juror. After he picked his jury, they all went through a three weeks of education on the history of the Negro. As the trial started, people quickly realised it would be a very dramatic case. The prosecution called up seventy-one witnesses. All which stated there was no mob that night. When it was Darrow’s turn to cross examine them, he made them stumble upon their words, made their stories sound crazy, and revealed their racial