In the case Scopes v. The case arose when, seeking to test the constitutional validity of the Butler Act, the American Civil Liberties Union ACLU placed advertisements in Tennessee newspapers offering to pay the expenses of any teacher willing to challenge the law. George W. Scopes also taught math and general science, and, on occasion, substituted for the principal in biology.
Among the many ironies at the Scopes trial, two surrounded the textbook at the center of the controversy. First, Tennessee mandated that George W. Yet Bryan volunteered to join the prosecution team because he opposed the theory of evolution for its association with eugenics and with social Darwinism. Darrow was a legendary lawyer. Labor leaders Eugene V. Debs and William D.
Loeb known more commonly as Leopold and Loeb , and Henry Sweet, a Detroit African American accused of murder in a civil rights upheaval, numbered among his most well-known clients. The trial began on July 10, The atmosphere was circus-like.
More than six hundred spectators shoehorned themselves into the courtroom. He was arrested on May 7, , and charged with teaching the theory of evolution. They sought to demonstrate that the Tennessee law was unconstitutional because it made the Bible, a religious document, the standard of truth in a public institution. The prosecution was led by William Jennings Bryan, a former Secretary of State, presidential candidate, and the most famous fundamentalist Christian spokesperson in the country.
His strategy was quite simple: to prove John Scopes guilty of violating Tennessee law. The Scopes trial turned out to be one of the most sensational cases in 20th century America; it riveted public attention and made millions of Americans aware of the ACLU for the first time.
Approximately people and more than newspapers packed the courtroom daily. The trial, which garnered extensive headline press coverage both nationally and internationally, was the first ever to be broadcasted live on the radio. A New York Times editorial pointed out that the case, 'gives scientific men a better opportunity than they have ever had to bring their teaching home to millions.
Darrow responded with an unusual trial maneuver that paid off. In response to Darrow's relentless questions as to whether the six days of creation, as described in Genesis, were twenty-four hour days, Bryan said "My impression is that they were periods. Bryan, who began his testimony calmly, stumbled badly under Darrow's persistent prodding.
At one point the exasperated Bryan said, "I do not think about things I don't think about. Bryan accused Darrow of attempting to "slur at the Bible. The next day, Raulston ruled that Bryan could not return to the stand and that his testimony the previous day should be stricken from evidence. The press reported the confrontation between Bryan and Darrow as a defeat for Bryan.
According to one historian, "As a man and as a legend, Bryan was destroyed by his testimony that day. When Judge Raulston mercifully ended the examination of Bryan, a large number of people rushed forward to congratulate Darrow. They seemed to have changed sides in a single afternoon. The man he defeated, Darrow thought, was only a shell of the person he once had been.
Darrow, however, did not escape criticism either. Alan Dershowitz, for example, contended that the celebrated defense attorney "comes off as something of an anti-religious cynic. As he ended his argument, applause broke out. The court issued its opinion — months later, invalidating the decision of the Dayton court on a technicality--not constitutional grounds as Darrow had hoped.
Rather than send the case back for further action, however, the Tennessee Supreme Court dismissed the case with the comment, "Nothing is to be gained by prolonging the life of this bizarre case.
The great defense attorney believed that he slowed, or even stopped, the anti-evolution movement in its tracks. Redirecting to: www. Close this pop-up window to remain on this page. Clarence Seward Darrow grew up the son of coffin-maker Americus Darrow, the village atheist and eccentric in the small, former abolitionist stronghold of Kinsman, Ohio.
Clarence is bequethed "a nonconforming spirit, a skeptical mind, and freelance politics that drifted toward cynicism. CD, If Bryan and the fundamentalists relied too much on the literal pronouncements of the Bible, Darrow might be faulted for accepting too unqualifiedly the impartiality of science and the soundness of its conclusions.
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