Trial Summary: Day Four
July 15, 1925
Minneapolis Daily Star. July 15, 1925
Despite the previous day’s agreement, Neal again voiced objection to the prayer, which Judge Raulston overruled. The judge then announced his decision to overrule the defense’s motion to quash the indictment. He agreed with the prosecution’s rebuttals of the arguments that the Butler Act violated various sections of the Tennessee Constitution. The previous day’s discussion of a press leak was resolved after Raulston learned of a misunderstanding by a young reporter he had spoken to, who had no sinister motive.
The heat was so intense that, during the noon recess, Scopes and two of the prosecutors went swimming in a pond, returning to court a little late. In the afternoon session, the jury was brought in, and Stewart opened for the prosecution, stating that Scopes had violated the anti-evolution law by teaching evolution in a public school.
Stewart called four witnesses to the stand, including the school superintendent, Walter White. White recounted the conversation at Robinson’s drugstore in which Scopes admitted he had taught evolution. During the cross-examination, Darrow read passages from the textbook that mentioned Darwin and the theory of evolution. White confirmed they were the passages in question and that the textbook had been approved by the state for use in Tennessee high schools.
The next witnesses were two of Scopes’s students, who stated that Scopes had taught evolution but that they did not find the instruction harmful. The last witness for the prosecution, Robinson, recalled that Scopes had stated in his store that no Tennessee teacher could teach biology without teaching evolution.
The defense chose not to have Scopes take the stand, instead starting with their first expert witness—Maynard M. Metcalf, a zoologist from John Hopkins University, and a devout Christian. Darrow asked Metcalf whether he knew any scientists who were not evolutionists, as Metcalf was. Stewart objected to any discussion of the theory of evolution and any attempt by the defense to prove its compatibility with Biblical creation. After some debate, Judge Raulston decided to allow Metcalf to testify, but not in front of a jury. The day ended with Metcalf defining evolution and giving examples of natural selection, stating that the theory of evolution applied to man as it did to animals and plants.