I think, if Your Honor please, I have now covered the three defenses set forth by Mr. Darrow, their age, lack of motive and physical and mental condition.
When we get all through, Mr. Darrow says that Your Honor ought to be merciful and finally, and that is his concluding defense, he appeals to your heart and your sympathy and not to your mind or your conscience.
When I was listening to Mr. Darrow plead for sympathy for these two men who showed no sympathy, it reminded me of the story of Abraham Lincoln, about a young boy about their age whose parents were wealthy and he murdered both of them. He was an only child and he did it so that he might inherit their money.
His crime was discovered the same as this crime has been discovered, and the court asked him for any reason he might have why sentence of death should not be passed upon him and he promptly replied, he hoped the court would be lenient to a poor orphan. Robert Franks had a right to live. He had a right to the society of the family and his friends and they had a right to his society.
These two young law students of superior intelligence, with more intelligence than they have heart, decided that he must die.
He was only 14.