- Person
- Samuel Leibowitz
- Lived
- 1893–1978
- Field
- Criminal law
- From
- Romanian-American
The story
By the late 1930s Samuel Leibowitz was one of the most famous defence lawyers in America. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, of the 140 capital cases he defended, he saved the lives of all but one client, and his clients had included the gangster Al Capone, whom he represented four times. He had also won national renown for defending the Scottsboro Boys in Alabama without a fee.
In 1940 he switched sides of the bench. He was elected to a 14-year term as a judge of the Kings County Court, the main trial court for criminal cases in Brooklyn. After briefly considering a third-party run for mayor of New York, he was re-elected in 1954. When New York merged its county courts into the State Supreme Court in 1962, he became a justice of the New York State Supreme Court.
Over the years he heard many cases concerning gang activity and organised crime. The Jewish Virtual Library describes him as an impassioned jurist who imposed severe sentences on criminals and rooted out corrupt officials. Having spent decades on the defence side, he knew how criminal cases were built and challenged, and he became known as one of the toughest judges in the city. He also presided over some widely followed trials, including the 1945 assault case against the Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher.
He became nationally known as a judge too, the subject of an admiring 1950 biography, Courtroom, by the journalist Quentin Reynolds. When he reached 70, the age at which judges in New York had to be certified as fit to continue, he was reappointed, and he served until 1969, when he reached the final mandatory retirement age of 76.
In all he spent nearly three decades on the bench, during the years when organised crime was a major public concern in New York. His personal and legal papers from 1939 to 1976 are held by the Cornell University Library, the university where he had earned his law degree in 1915, and they remain a resource for historians of crime and justice in the city.
Why it matters
Leibowitz's long service on the bench helped Brooklyn confront organised crime and official corruption in the mid-20th century.
About Samuel Leibowitz
Romanian-born New York trial lawyer who defended the Scottsboro Boys without pay and won the Supreme Court ruling that barred the exclusion of Black citizens from juries.
More about Samuel Leibowitz
- Samuel Leibowitz defied death threats to defend his clientsThreatened with death in Decatur, Alabama, and guarded by the National Guard, Samuel Leibowitz vowed to defend the Scottsboro Boys "until hell freezes over".
- Samuel Leibowitz insisted a Black witness be called "Mr."In the Scottsboro trials, Samuel Leibowitz asked the prosecution to address a Black witness as "Mr. Sandford" rather than by his first name, defying courtroom custom in Alabama.
- Samuel Leibowitz saved a mentally ill man from executionIn 1937 Samuel Leibowitz defended Robert Irwin, a former mental patient accused of triple murder, and negotiated a plea that spared him the death penalty.
- Samuel Leibowitz defended the Scottsboro Boys without a feeSamuel Leibowitz defended the Scottsboro Boys without a fee and won Norris v. Alabama, the 1935 ruling that Alabama's exclusion of Black jurors was unconstitutional.
- Samuel Leibowitz defended "the basic rights of man"Samuel Leibowitz, who did not share the politics of the group that hired him, took the Scottsboro case to defend "the basic rights of man" after reading the trial record.
Sources
- Samuel Leibowitz Wikipedia
- Samuel Simon Leibowitz Jewish Virtual Library
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.