The play’s the thing: CLE credit without lectures
Clarence Darrow returned to life on March 16, three days after the anniversary of his 1938 death in Chicago.
Darrow, personified by Chicago attorney Todd S. Parkhurst, flawlessly delivered a 35-minute summation of his 12-hour closing argument in the 1924 sentencing hearing for young murderers Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold.
The venue was appropriately a courtroom in Maywood’s 4th Municipal District Courthouse. The audience, comprised of members of the West Suburban Bar Association, received MCLE credit for witnessing the performance and participating in the conversation that followed.
Parkhurst, a partner in Hughes, Socol, Piers, Resnick & Dym, and his two cohorts have acted out the Loeb-Leopold arguments some 20 times in the past four years, including once for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy last year in Philadelphia.
Scott W. Petersen of Holland & Knight is tenacious Cook County prosecutor Robert Crowe, who demands a death sentence for the two law students who killed Bobby Franks in a merciless attempt to commit a perfect crime.
An introduction and continuity are provided by 1920s journalist Ben Hecht, portrayed by dapper William M. Hannay of Schiff Hardin, in seersucker pinstripes and straw boater.
Parkhurst was a partner with Hannay at Schiff Hardin from 1986 to 1995, and with Petersen at Holland & Knight from 2000 to 2007. Each has had acting experience in community theater, and each wrote his own portion of the script.
In order to make Darrow the keynoter of the performance, Parkhurst took center stage for the final argument. In the actual trial, Crowe conducted the closing for the prosecution.
But Petersen’s strident, passionate oration – likely based on his past practice as a capital case prosecutor – was an apt lead-in to the Darrow summation.
“Scott believes in the death penalty,” Parkhurst said. “Bill Hannay was a prosecutor, too, but he’s more liberal.”
Lawyers have roles in upcoming trials
Todd Parkhurst has been “retained” by the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education to portray James Topham Brady in recreation of the 19th century murder trial of Congressman Daniel Sickles.
Sickles confessed to shooting Philip Barton Key in broad daylight, in front of witnesses, in Washington, D.C. Key, a district attorney and the son of Francis Scott Key, was involved in an affair with Sickles’ wife.
The IICLE dramatization, titled “Murder on Lafayette Square,” will be presented Thursday, April 30, at the Hilton Garden Inn, Champaign, and Wednesday, May 6, at the Northwestern University School of Law.
Brady (played by Parkhurst) gave the opening statement for the defense in the 1859 trial, where temporary insanity was asserted successfully for the first time. Sickles was acquitted.
Another attorney in the trial was Edwin M. Stanton, who became Secretary of War in Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet. His role will be filled by Steven E. Walanka, a former trial attorney now with the office of solicitor for the U.S. Department of Labor in Chicago.
“Murder on Lafayette Square” is directed by the author, Arlynn Presser (formerly Lynn Melody Patrick), an award-winning Harlequin romance novelist who once practiced with Schuyler Roche.
Performances also are scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, June 11, at Robert Morris College in downtown Chicago, and from 3 to 5 p.m. Friday, June 12, for the Chicago Bar Association and Chicago-Kent College of Law.