- Person
- Samuel Leibowitz
- Lived
- 1893–1978
- Field
- Criminal law
- From
- Romanian-American
The story
After the Scottsboro trials, Samuel Leibowitz returned to his New York practice. He was already known for a remarkable record in capital cases: according to the Jewish Virtual Library, of the 140 he defended, he saved the lives of all but one client.
In June 1937 he took on the defence of Robert George Irwin, a sculptor who had been treated for years in state mental hospitals. Irwin was accused of killing three people in a rooming house in Manhattan's Beekman Hill neighbourhood over the Easter weekend of 1937. The case received enormous and sensational newspaper coverage, and after a nationwide search Irwin surrendered through a Chicago newspaper and was handed over to police in New York.
The case raised hard questions about mental illness and justice. During the search, a New York police inspector declared that Irwin's psychiatric history showed he was insane. But after Irwin turned himself in, he was indicted for first-degree murder, and the authorities now claimed he had been sane and knew what he was doing, which would have exposed him to execution. The district attorney announced that he would seek the death penalty. Leibowitz insisted that his client was, and always would be, hopelessly insane.
A court-appointed commission found Irwin sane, and the prosecution, now led by District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey, prepared for trial in the autumn of 1938. Soon after the jury was chosen, Leibowitz secured a plea agreement. Irwin pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, avoiding the death penalty, and was sentenced to a long term that kept him in custody for the rest of his life. Once he was sentenced, state prison doctors examined him and declared him very definitely insane, and he spent the rest of his life in secure mental hospitals.
The case renewed debate over the scope of New York's insanity defence. It also drew attention to the exclusion of women from juries in murder cases, and soon afterwards the court began placing women on the jury lists for such trials.
Why it matters
Leibowitz's defence ensured that a man whose sanity the police themselves had questioned was not sent to his death, and the case fed a wider debate on mental illness in criminal law.
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 became a judge who took on organised crimeElected a Brooklyn judge in 1940, Samuel Leibowitz served nearly three decades on the bench, hearing gang and organised crime cases and rooting out corrupt officials.
- 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
- Robert George Irwin Wikipedia
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.