Lawyers stand here by the day and read cases from the Dark Ages,
where Judges have said that if a man had a grain of sense left and a child
if he was barely out of his cradle, could be handled because he knew the
difference between right and wrong. Death sentences for eighteen, seventeen,
sixteen and fourteen years have been cited.
I have heard in the last six weeks nothing but the cry for blood.
I have heard from the office of the State's Attorney only ugly hate.
I have heard precedents quoted which would be a disgrace to a savage
race.
I have seen a court urged almost to the point of threats to hang
two boys, in the face of science, in the face of philosophy, in the face
of humanity, in the face of experience, in the face of all the better and
more humane thought of the age.
