Darrow Bridge: Wednesday March 13th, 2024 at 10 am
Join us just east of the Clarence Darrow Bridge in Jackson Park for brief speeches, including excerpts from Darrow’s defense of Leopold and Loeb. The Bridge is behind the Museum of Science & Industry. Driving south on Lake Shore Drive, pass the light at 57th Street and turn right at the next right, Science Drive. You will come almost immediately to Columbia Drive; turn left and follow this road to parking near the bridge. No registration needed fo March 13.
Symposium: Thursday March 14, 2024, 6 – 7pm – Register here
A 21st Century Reconsideration of Leopold and Loeb: Clarence Darrow, Adolescent Development and the Criminal Legal System Today
May 2024 marks the centenary of the murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, whose sentencing hearing iriveted Chicago and the world. State’s attorney Robert Crowe demanded the execution of the confessed murderers, Attorney Clarence Darrow led the defense, making history with his use of psychiatric testimony and his impassioned arguments against the death penalty.
One hundred years later, this program will revisit the prosecution, defense, and sentencing of Leopold and Loeb through the lens of 21st century ideas about juvenile criminal justice.
Antoinette Kavanaugh is a licensed, board certified forensic clinical psychologist with over 20 years of experience providing case evaluation and consultation in juvenile, criminal, civil, and capital cases worldwide. She works with lawyers on both sides of the bar and is often sought out for her sensitivity to factors such as culture, gender, class and trauma. Her specialties include: false or disputed confessions, competency, capital litigation, juvenile issues, Miranda evaluations, resentencing evaluations, and the psychological impact of wrongful convictions.
Colleen Sheehan was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to the Juvenile Justice Committee, the Committee on Education and the Board of Trustees of the Illinois Judicial College. Judge Sheehan also led a team of community and criminal justice stakeholders to design and implement the Restorative Justice Community Court in Cook County. Judge Sheehan retired in 2019 and continues her work in Restorative and Juvenile Justice as a consultant with ReDeploy Illinois, an organization which seeks to reduce juvenile incarceration.
Dean A. Strang is a professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law and a criminal defense lawyer. He is known for his work documented in Netflix’s Making a Murderer. Strang also has written two books of legal history, Keep the Wretches in Order: America’s Biggest Mass Trial, the Rise of the Justice Department and the Fall of the IWW, and Worse Than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror. He was Wisconsin’s first Federal Defender and has argued in the United States Supreme Court, five United States Courts of Appeal, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Eric Sussman is currently a partner at Barnes & Thornburg in Chicago where he practices white collar law. Previously he served as the First Assistant State’s Attorney for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, where he supervised over 800 lawyers and investigators in the criminal, appellate and juvenile justice bureaus as well as the civil actions bureau. Eric also served as a federal prosecutor where he was the Deputy Chief for Financial Crimes and Special Prosecutions in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago.
Nina Barrett is a graduate of both Yale University and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, is the author of three books and numerous articles, essays, and reviews. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and The Nation, among other publications. In 2009, she curated an exhibition for Northwestern called The Murder That Wouldn’t Die, which inspired her book The Leopold and Loeb Files: An Intimate Look at One of America’s Most Infamous Crimes. Barrett is also the founder and owner of Bookends & Beginnings, an independent bookstore in Evanston.
To register for the March 14th evening program at the Newberry Library, please visit this page.
Clarence Darrow Commemorative Committee 