Trial Summary: Day Three
July 14, 1925
Stewart (left), Malone (center), and Darrow (right). Arguing about prayer in the court.
After the announcement of the opening prayer, Darrow formally objected to having a prayer open a case about the conflict between science and religion, stating that “there should be no part taken outside the evidence in this case and no attempt by means of prayer or in any other way to influence the deliberation and consideration of the jury of the facts in this case.” After some debate, the court overruled the defense’s objection and the prayer was recited, although Darrow asked that the record show the defense’s objection every day for the rest of the trial. Judge Raulston had not decided his response to the defense's motion to quash Scopes’s indictment from the previous day. The judge adjourned the court to make his decision.
Minneapolis Daily Star. July 14, 1925
When court reconvened several hours later, Arthur Garfield Hays asked the court to hear a petition signed by numerous religious organizations, churches, and synagogues. The petition requested that if the judge continued opening each day with a prayer, he should “select the officiating clergymen from among other than fundamentalist churches in alternation with fundamentalist clergymen.” Judge Raulston referred the petition to the pastor’s association and let them choose who would give each morning’s prayer.
The judge also claimed that someone had leaked his decision on quashing the indictment. Newspapers around the country were reporting that he had ruled against the defense’s motion, even though Raulston had not yet announced his decision. Raulston then adjourned the court and met with members of the press, appointing several of them to investigate the leak and report back to him.