Clarence Darrow
Clarence Seward Darrow (1857-1938) was an American defense lawyer who handled high-profile cases for the American Civil Liberties Union, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and others.
Darrow's most famous defense, which was successful only to extent he avoided the death penalty for his clients, was in his 1924 representation of the teenagers Leopold and Loeb after they murdered the younger 14-year-old Bobby Franks in what may have been a sexual assault. Leopold and Loeb were children of wealthy and prominent parents.
Darrow was also unsuccessful in defending John Scopes in the so-called Monkey Trial in 1925.
Darrow was successful in representing Henry Sweet, younger brother of Ossian Sweet, against charges of murder in Michigan v. Henry Sweet, a Detroit murder trial resulting from the killing of Leon Breiner. The previous year, Darrow had argued to a mistrial the same case as charged against all nine people who were in the house from which the shots that killed Breiner were fired.[1]