The Defense of Henry Sweet :: Essays Papers

The Defense of Henry Sweet For this assignment, I found a speech that was given by a famous defense attorney named Clarence Darrow. This speech is his closing remarks to the all-white jury in defense of a black man named Henry Sweet. The trial took place in Detroit, Michigan in May of 1926. Henry Sweet was accused of first-degree murder. I chose this text for my paper because it had more persuasive techniques in it than anything else I came across. Which is to be expected, because after all, the whole purpose of the speech was to persuade the jury. One of the techniques that this speech has an abundance of is the use of purr words. Darrow referred to the jury numerous times as being the â€Å"kindly†, â€Å"decent†, and â€Å"most humane† people of the society. He referred to the jury selection process by saying, â€Å"it took us a week to find you, a week of culling out the prejudice and hatred. Probably we did not cull it all out at that, but we took the best and the fairest that we could find.† The question that immediately came to my mind when I read that was, â€Å"best† and â€Å"fairest† of what/who? There were many instances like these throughout the speech. Darrow also made use of labels in the same way. By saying to the jury that he believed they were fair, just, and unprejudiced, he was trying to program them to overlook the fact that the defendant was black, (which, of course, was a very big deal back then†¦especially to the all-white jury). Darrow said at one point, â€Å"†¦ you know that if white men had been fighting their way against colored men, nobody would have dreamed of prosecution. And that from the beginning of this case to the end†¦ the prosecution is based on race prejudice and nothing else.† He based his whole speech on prejudice (and an argument against it) and the labels that he gave the jury were just one of many ways he did this. Darrow also referred to Henry Sweet as a â€Å"boy† on numerous occasions. Sweet was a grown man, but by labeling him as a boy, it made him seem more innocent and faultless to his audience.