This program will be held in-person at the Newberry and livestreamed on Zoom. The online version of this event will be live captioned. Please register below.

May 2024 marks the centenary of the murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, whose sentencing hearing in the summer of 1924 riveted Chicago and the world. With Cook County State’s Attorney Robert Crowe demanding the execution of the confessed murderers, celebrated attorney Clarence Darrow stepped in to lead 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 recreate the prosecution, defense, and sentencing of Leopold and Loeb through the lens of 21st-century ideas about juvenile criminal justice, as a panel of legal and psychiatric experts presents a sitting judge with the arguments they would make if the trial were to take place today.

Introductions: Anita Weinberg, Nina Barrett

Cast

State's Attorney: Eric Sussman

Defense Attorney: Dean Strang

Forensic Psychologist: Antoinette Kavanaugh

Judge: Colleen Sheehan

Cosponsored by the Clarence Darrow Commemorative Committee, Chicago Collections Consortium, and Agate Publishing.

SPEAKERS

Nina Barrett, 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.

COST AND REGISTRATION

This program is free and open to all. Advance registration required.

Registration opens February 1.

Click here for complete details and registration.