Compulsion Page #11

to destroy his identity...

and put the naked body

in a ditch.

If killing these boys

would bring him back to life...

I'd say, "Let them go".

And I think their parents

would say so too.

Neither they nor I would

want to release them.

They must be isolated

from society.

I'm asking this court to shut them

into a prison for life.

Any cry for more

goes back to the hyena.

It roots back

to the beasts of the jungle.

It's no part of man.

This court is told to give them the same mercy

that they gave their victim.

Your Honor, if our state

is not kinder, more human...

more considerate,

more intelligent...

then the mad act

of these two sick boys...

then I'm sorry

that I've lived so long.

I know that any mother might be

the mother of little Paulie Kessler...

who left home

and went to school...

never came back.

And I know that any mother

might be the mother...

of Artie Strauss...

orJudd Steiner.

Maybe, in some ways,

these parents...

are more responsible

than their children.

I guess the truth is that all parents

can be criticized...

and these might have done better

if they hadn't had so much money.

I do not know.

The State's Attorney

has pictured the putting...

of the poor,

little dead body in a ditch.

Your Honor, I can only think now

of taking these two boys...

18 and 19...

penning them in a cell.

Checking off the days

and hours and minutes...

until their wakened in the gray

of the morning and led to the scaffold...

their feet tied, black caps

drawn over their heads...

stood on a trap, the hangman

pressing the spring.

I can see them fall

through a space.

I can see them...

stopped by the rope...

around their necks.

It would be done,

of course...

in the name of justice.

Justice.

Who knows what it is?

Do I know?

Does Your Honor know?

Can Your Honor

tell me what I deserve?

Can Your Honor appraise yourself

and say what you deserve?

Do you think you can cure the hatreds

and maladjustments of the world...

by hanging them?

Mr. Horn says that if

we hang Artie and Judd...

there'll be no more killing.

The world has been one long slaughterhouse

from the beginning until today...

and the killing goes on

and on and on.

Why not read something?

Why not think...

instead of blindly

shouting for death?

"Kill 'em" Because everybody's

talking about the case.

Because their parents

have money.

"Kill them".

Will that stop other

sick boys from killing?

No.

It's taken the world a long, long time

to get to even where it is today.

Your Honor,

if you hang these boys...

you turn back to the past.

I'm pleading

for the future

not merely for these boys,

but for all boys, for all the young.

I'm pleading not for these two lives,

but for life itself...

for a time when we can overcome

hatred with love...

and we can learn that

all life is worth saving...

and that mercy is the highest

attribute of men.

Yes, I'm pleading

for the future...

in this court of law.

I'm pleading for love.

The court

The court stands in recess...

until 10:
00 tomorrow morning.

Ruth!

I don't know whether

you'll believe me or not

I don't know why you should.

After listening to Wilk...

I'm glad you went on the stand.

It took a lot of courage.

I just wanted to tell you that.

Sid.

For the crime of murder,

to be confined in the penitentiary atJoliet...

for the term

of your natural life.

For the crime ofkidnapping

for ransom...

to be confined in the penitentiary

atJoliet...

for 99 years.

The sentences to run

consecutively.

Court is adjourned.

So we sweat through three months

of misery just to hear that.

I wish they'd have hung us

right off the bat.

Is that your only reaction, Artie?

No remorse, no feeling of

Remorse?

I wasn't expecting you

to fall down on your knees...

- and thank God for deliverance.

- God?

That sounds rather strange

coming from you, Mr. Wilk.

A lifetime of doubt

and questioning...

doesn't necessarily mean

I've reached any final conclusions.

Well, I have...

and God has nothing

to do with it.

Are you sure, Judd?

In those years to come

you might find yourself asking...

if it wasn't the hand of God

dropped those glasses.

And if he didn't,

who did?

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