Aficionados of the legendary attorney Clarence Darrow will gather at the Darrow Bridge in Jackson Park Sunday, March 13 at 10 a.m., as they have every March 13th for over 50 years to honor Darrow's memory and this year, to celebrate Governor Patrick Quinn's signing legislation to ban capital punishment in Illinois. Darrow, a passionate opponent of capital punishment, argued simply in a 1924 debate, "[W]hy am I opposed to capital punishment? It is too horrible a thing for a State to undertake." Darrow died March 13, 1938 in Chicago and his ashes were strewn at the Jackson Park lagoon.
Darrow was also an ardent supporter and advocate for labor unions, and speakers at the annual event will also address current regional events where the rights to collective bargaining are being challenged.
Larry Spivak, President of the Illinois Labor History Society and Regional Director of AFSCME Council 31, will speak to the group as they gather at the Darrow Bridge. He will be joined by others including State Representative Barbara Flynn Currie and Alderwoman Leslie Hairston.
More than 100 Darrow devotees, including attorneys, labor leaders, social justice advocates, civil libertarians, and First Amendment buffs will attend the outdoor wreath-throwing ceremonies behind the Museum of Science and Industry before moving to the New Columbian Room inside the Museum for the program.
Inside, the program will feature a dual tribute to Darrow and his work on capital punishment. According to Anita Weinberg, Professor at Loyola Law School and co-chair of the program, the topic was selected shortly after the General Assembly sent legislation banning capital punishment to Governor Quinn's desk.
The speakers on capital punishment, Edward Mogul and Joey Mogul, his niece, are both long-time civil rights Attorneys. The topic of Edward Mogul's speech is "'Justice' is Not a Legal Term, or the Gulf Between Justice and the Law." Joey Mogul's speech is, "Dreaming of Darrow and the Fight for Human Rights in the 21st Century."
As President of the Illinois Academy of Criminology, Edward Mogul successfully proposed that the Illinois Supreme Court adopt what is now the standard of law: "That it is the duty of the prosecutor to seek justice, not merely to convict." Mogul is a federal trial attorney concentrating in the area of criminal law, and a professor of humanities in the City Colleges of Chicago.
Joey Mogul, partner at the People's Law Office in Chicago, and an adjunct law professor at DePaul University College of Law, co-authored Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People. Mogul represents Darrell Cannon, Ronald Kitchen and Michael Tillman, alleged victims of police torture at Area 2 and 3 Police Headquarters, in their pending civil rights cases.
The March 13 event will feature a special tribute to the late Lila Weinberg, one of the founders of the Darrow Bridge ceremony in 1958, and with her husband, Arthur authored a trilogy of books on Darrow, including the New York Times bestseller Attorney for the Damned.
Loyola Law Professor Anita Weinberg, daughter or Arthur and Lila Weinberg, will preside over the indoor program. Tracy Baim, daughter of the late Joy Darrow, will preside at the bridge.
Darrow, characterized as the "attorney for the damned," who was born in 1857 in Farmdale, Ohio, practiced in Chicago for most of his career, representing union activists, underdog causes and vigorously opposing capital punishment. None of his many clients was sentenced to death.
Darrow's death on March 13, 1938, was memorialized throughout the world. His ashes, and later the ashes of his wife Ruby and his son Paul, were scattered from the Darrow Bridge which was dedicated to his memory by the Chicago Park District in 1957.
For more details see
www.darrowbridge.org
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