#20: A Case That Changed the Death-Penalty Debate
Leopold and Loeb did not single-handedly transform American capital-punishment law, but their sentencing became one of the era’s most famous arguments against executing young offenders. Darrow insisted that punishment should consider age, psychology, and human development rather than simple vengeance. Those questions would continue through later American legal battles over juvenile defendants. A century afterward, the case remains disturbing precisely because the central question survives: what should justice do with young people who commit terrible crimes?
