CLARENCE DARROW: Defense Attorney

Clarence Darrow's life story is a record of milestones in jurisprudence -- of espousal of unpopular causes and defiance of the conventional. His sympathies were agnostic and socialistic and his conviction was that every man is entitled to defense in court. The ex-teacher began practice in Chicago and undertook defense of Eugene Debs, who had been indicted for conspiracy in the Railroad Union case. His success brought him other cases defending union interests. Often he used the witness stand to present to a national audience of newspaper readers the abuses of labor. In the Scopes trial he placed the Bible-reading Bryan on the witness stand, and by sentient questioning revealed the provinciality of the orator. After his defense of the MacNamara brothers in San Francisco, Darrow was himself accused of bribing a juror -- a charge of which he was later cleared. His first marriage was unsuccessful but he remarried later. A biography of a memorable advocate, which skillfully clarifies legal issues and depicts the evolution of social progress.