The Scopes 'Monkey Trial' verdict was reached
On this day · 21 July 1925
After a sweltering courtroom showdown over teaching evolution, the jury needed barely ten minutes to convict a Tennessee schoolteacher.
On July 21, 1925, the jury in the case of State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes returned a guilty verdict in less than ten minutes. The young high-school teacher had been accused of violating the Butler Act, a state law that barred teaching that humans descended from lower animals.
The trial in Dayton, Tennessee had become a national spectacle, pitting celebrated defense attorney Clarence Darrow against three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan. Reporters, radio crews, and crowds packed the town to watch the clash between modern science and biblical literalism play out in the summer heat.
The defense actually urged conviction so the case could be appealed. Judge John Raulston levied the minimum fine of one hundred dollars on Scopes. The Tennessee Supreme Court later overturned that penalty on a technicality while upholding the law itself.
A nine-day trial, a ten-minute verdict, and a debate over science and faith that endures a century later.
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