Oh Sweet Innocent Childhood

You may hang these boys; you may hang them by the neck until they are dead. But in doing it you will turn your face toward the past. In doing it you are making it harder for every other boy who in ignorance and darkness must grope his way through the mazes which only childhood knows. In doing it you will make it harder for unborn children.

 Another important theme for Mr. Darrow, is childhood. Often he uses the word childhood throughout his speech. Even though he is defending teenagers in this trial, he uses childhood in a different context. He uses childhood repeatedly to gain pity from the judge. He also keeps going back to childhood to talk about more and more kids who have awful lives because of a bad childhood, or because of a bad experience.

I feel that I should apologize for the length of time I have taken. This case may not be as important as I think it is, and I am sure I do not need to tell this court, or to tell my friends that I would fight just as hard for the poor as for the rich. If I should succeed, my greatest reward and my greatest hope will be that for the countless unfortunates who must tread the same road in blind childhood that these poor boys have trod -- that I have done something to help human understanding, to temper justice with mercy, to overcome hate with love.