The whole concept of Scopes trial was born in Fred Robinson’s drug store when George Rappalyea arrived with a piece of paper containing an American Civil Liberties Union announcement. It contained the information that it was willing to offer its services to anyone challenging the Tennessee anti-evolution statute. He figured that this would bring the town back onto the map.
On the day of the starting of the trial Dayton Tennessee was in frenzy, lemonade stands were set up, banners lined the streets, and reporters were everywhere. There were also chimpanzees brought in, they were allegedly for evidence at the trial, but performed side shows in the streets of Dayton.
Nearly a thousand people, 300 of whom were standing, jammed the Rhea County Courthouse on July 10, 1925 for the first day of trial. (Judge John T. Raulston the presiding judge in the Scopes Trial, had proposed moving the trial under a tent that would have seated 20,000 people) The first real controversy of the trial occurred when defense attorney Clarence Darrow objected to the pre-trial prayer, his objection was overruled.
A jury of twelve men, including ten farmers and eleven regular church-goers, were quickly selected, by picking names from a hat. This was proposed by Darrow, instead of the customary picking of the jury by the county sheriff. The trial adjourned for the weekend. On Sunday, William Jennings Bryan delivered the sermon at Dayton's Methodist Church. He used the occasion to attack the defense’s strategy in the Scopes case. As Bryan spoke, Judge Raulston listened from his front row seat.
On the first real day of the trial the defense argued that the amendment to ban evolution from being taught in schools as being unconstitutional, and that it did not exercise an individual’s right to freedom of speech. This was the heart of the defense’s case; their goal however was not to win the lawsuit but was to abolish the anti-evolutionary statute not only from Tennessee, but from the entire United States.
In the opening statements the two lawyers stated that this case was good verses evil, truth verses lies etc. Jennings said that if Scopes and the evolutionists were to win that Christianity would be lost. Darrow said that "Scopes isn't on trial; civilization is on trial." The prosecution, Darrow said, was "opening the doors for a reign of bigotry equal to anything in the Middle Ages." To the awe of spectators Darrow said Bryan was responsible for the "foolish, mischievous and wicked act." Darrow said that the anti-evolutionary law made the Bible "the yardstick to measure every man's intellect, to measure every man's intelligence, to measure every man's learning."
The prosecutions opened its case by questioning seven of Scopes’ students about what they had been taught that day. They said that Scopes told them that all humans had evolved from one celled organisms and had now evolved into its current state. In the defenses cross-examining Darrow asked freshman Howard Morgan "Well, did he tell you anything else that was wicked?" "No, not that I can remember". After this the prosecution questioned the drug-store owner about the case he said, "any teacher in the state who was teaching Hunter's Biology was violating the law," the prosecution rested. It was a simple case.
On Thursday, July 16, the defense called its first witness, Dr. Maynard Metcalf, a zoologist from the Johns Hopkins University. The prosecution objected, arguing that the testimony was irrelevant to Scopes' guilt or innocence under the statue. Before ruling the prosecution's evidence, Judge Raulston decided to hear some of Dr. Metcalf's testimony about the theory of evolution. The prosecution mocked the doctor’s theories saying that that the evolutionists had man descending "not even from American monkeys, but Old World monkeys." The next day, Raulston ruled the defense's expert testimony inadmissible.
Darrow was very angered by the decision, the conversation between Raulston and Darrow ensued, "every suggestion of the prosecution should meet with an endless waste of time, and a bare suggestion of anything that is perfectly competent on our part should be immediately overruled." Raulston asked Darrow, "I hope you do not mean to reflect upon the court?" Darrow's reply: "Well, your honor has the right to hope." Raulston responded, "I have the right to do something else." The insult earned Darrow a contempt finding.
Darrow then to everyone’s surprise called William Jennings Bryan to the stand, here are some excerpts from the examination, "You have given considerable study to the Bible, haven't you, Mr. Bryan?" Bryan replied, "Yes, I have. I have studied the Bible for about fifty years." Bryan was asked about a whale swallowing Jonah, Joshua making the sun stand still, Noah and the great flood, and the temptation of Adam in the Garden of Eden. Finally he was asked about creation being done in 6 days; Darrow crushed Jennings by him admitting that creation may not have been 6 days of 24 hours, but 6 periods of any given amount of time.
The trial was nearly over. Darrow asked the jury to return a verdict of guilty in order that the case might be appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court. Under Tennessee law, Bryan then had to be denied the opportunity to deliver a closing speech he had labored over for weeks. The jury complied with Darrow's request, and Judge Raulston fined him $100.
Days after the trial Darrow ate an enormous meal and died during the nap following it.
A year later the verdict was overturned because Judge Raulston set the fine not the jury. The then court stated that "Nothing is to be gained by prolonging the life of this bizarre case."
The anti-evolution statute no longer exists today, perhaps, testimony to what Clarence Darrow and John T. Scopes did.