Free Will in the Leopold and Loeb case argued by Clarence Darrow

 

 

 

In 1924 Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two child prodigies from wealthy Chicago families undertook to commit the perfect crime. Nathan Leopold was an ornithologist, budding lawyer and aficionado of Frederick Nietzsche, whose concept of the “Superman” led him to believe he and his friend, Richard Loeb, were not required to abide by the prevailing moral codes. Richard Loeb was fascinated by crime. The two kidnapped and murdered a young, wealthy neighbor, Bobby Franks. They confessed to the crime. Clarence Darrow, an avid opponent of the death penalty, was hired to defend the teenagers. The teenagers faced the death penalty, which was death by hanging. Darrow pled the defendants guilty. To save their lives, he used the determinist defense at the sentencing hearing, saying, in part:

Is Dickey Loeb to blame because out of the infinite forces that conspired to form him, the infinite forces that were at work producing him ages before he was born, that because out of these infinite combinations he was born without it [emotion]? If he is, then there should be a new definition for justice. Is he to blame for what he did not have and never had? Is he to blame that his machine is imperfect? Who is to blame? I do not know. I have never in my life been interested so much in fixing blame as I have in relieving people from blame. I am not wise enough to fix it. I know that somewhere in the past that entered into him something missed. It may be defective nerves. It may be a defective heart or liver. It may be defective endocrine glands. I know it is something. I know that nothing happens in this world without a cause.

1. How does Darrow’s determinist position conflict with the concept of free will? (25 points)

2. Thomas Hobbes posed the notion of compatibilism. According to Hobbes, an action is free if it meets two conditions:
the action must be caused by the will
it must not be externally constrained

Does Nathan Leopold’s participation in the kidnapping and murder of Bobby Franks meet Hobbes’ criteria of a free act? Why or why not?
(25 points)

4. Was Leopold’s will under his direct control during the commission of the crime? Was he brainwashed? If so, are his actions free? Why or why not? (25 points)

5. If you were the judge in the Leopold case, how would you have adjudicated this crime? Explain the theory underlying your decision: Determinism, Soft Determinism or Indeterminism. (25 points)

 

Sample Solution

Free Will in the Leopold and Loeb case argued by Clarence Darrow

Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb (who were 18 and 19, respectfully, at the same time) settled on kidnapping and murdering a younger adolescent as their perfect crime. They were two wealth students who kidnapped and murdered 14-year old Bobby Franks in Chicago, Illinois in May 1924. They committed the murder, characterized at the time as “the crime of the century” – as a demonstration of their ostensible intellectual superiority, which they believed enabled and entitled them to carry out a “perfect crime” without consequences. Clarence Darrow`s 12 hour summation at their sentencing hearing is noted for its influential criticism of capital punishment as retributive rather than transformative justice.

 

 

My Earliest Memory

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First recollections of oneself can be effortlessly mistaken for manufactured recollections made by seeing old pictures, films, and hearing stories identified with one’s very own history. This is the situation for me: I have seen such a significant number of home films, heard such huge numbers of tales about myself, and seen such a significant number of pictures about my youth, I don’t know for certain what my first memory is in reality. Since I can’t pinpoint my first memory precisely, I will unfurl a progression of recollections that were the most punctual in my adolescence.

trees in windI recollect around evening time glancing through the huge glass windows of our front room at the tremendous pine trees and douglas fir trees, which brushed against our white fence. The trees would influence once in a while fiercely in the breeze, as it was basic in Seattle around evening time. I would watch the trees move, accepting to see many alarming and unusual shapes framing in obscurity, as though the trees were alive in a cognizant manner. The trees would move into the kinds of beasts my creative mind conjured up. I would inform my mom concerning the shapes and structures, yet as a typical mother would do, she attempted to quiet me down rather than cooperate with my ghostly obsession.

Another sharp early memory of mine was the point at which I analyzed my body. I was interested, as most kids may be, about the surface and type of the body we are given during childbirth. Since the beginning, I had four activities: two open heart medical procedures, and two hernia medical procedures. I would feel my scars, which scale up my chest and travel close to my crotch as though they were scenes, consumed into my skin until age would blur them away. Other than scars, I would savor over the littlest of points of interest about my eyes, which have hazel lines dashing away from the understudies. I would look at my life state through my eyes: I could perceive how I was all in all through them. My hands were likewise a state of interest for me: my left hand is altogether littler than my correct hand in light of medical procedures. Looking at them was and still is somewhat of a fixation of mine.

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I figured out how to ride a bike very early, however I don’t recollect the specific age. My dad was an expert cyclist at a certain point, and he needed his child to be sharp in the game too. Be that as it may, I recollect my first endeavor to ride a bike without preparing wheels finishing shockingly and entertainingly. Out on the central avenue alongside our home, where there were basically no vehicles driving around in those days because of less populace, I began OK on a little kid bicycle. My equalization was fine from the beginning, however then I got overexcited and lost my parity, in the long run crushing into our post box. In spite of the fact that my father was worried about my wellbeing from the start, after he saw that nothing genuine had transpired, he chuckled decisively and was making jokes about me. I didn’t feel disheartened—actually, I was snickering along following a couple of moments.

I have a lot progressively dispersed recollections that could consider first recollections, despite the fact that they are blended in with my impressions from watching home films, seeing pictures, and hearing anecdotes about my adolescence. We may not know our first memory for certain, yet once we attempt to uncover it, the world we lived in as a youngster pours through the perspective of visual idea, bringing back the air of this time into the present minute, similar to an incense smoke that delicately twists around our present detects.

exposition about existence, article design, chronicled essa

 

 

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