Editing John T. Scopes (section)

==Trial==
Scopes' involvement with the [[Scopes trial]] occurred after the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] (ACLU) announced that it would finance a [[test case (law)|test case]] challenging the constitutionality of the Butler Act if it could find a Tennessee teacher who was willing to act as a defendant.

A group of businessmen in Dayton, Tennessee, especially engineer and geologist [[George Rappleyea]], considered this an opportunity to get publicity for their town, and Rappleyea spoke with Scopes, stating that while the Butler Act prohibited the teaching of human evolution, the state required teachers to use the assigned textbook, [[George William Hunter]]'s ''[[Civic Biology]]'' (1914), which included a chapter concerning evolution. Rappleyea argued that teachers were thus essentially required to violate the law. When asked about a test case, Scopes was initially reluctant to get involved. After some discussion he told the group gathered in Robinson's Drugstore, "If you can prove that I've taught evolution and that I can qualify as a defendant, then I'll be willing to stand trial".{{sfn|Scopes|Presley|1967|page=60}}

By the time the trial had begun, the defense team included [[Clarence Darrow]], [[Dudley Field Malone]], [[John Randolph Neal, Jr.|John Neal]], [[Arthur Garfield Hays]] and Frank McElwee. The prosecution team, directed by politician [[Tom Stewart (politician)|Tom Stewart]], included brothers [[Herbert Hicks]] and [[Sue K. Hicks]], Wallace Haggard, father and son pairings Ben and J. Gordon McKenzie, and [[William Jennings Bryan]] and [[William Jennings Bryan Jr.]] The elder Bryan had spoken at Scopes' high school commencement, and remembered the defendant was laughing while he was giving the address to the graduating class six years earlier.{{sfn|Paxton|2013|page=104}}

The case ended on July 21, 1925, with a verdict of guilty, and Scopes was fined $100 ({{inflation|US|100|1925|fmt=eq}}). The case was appealed to the [[Tennessee Supreme Court]]. In a 3–1 decision written by Chief Justice [[Grafton Green]], the Butler Act was held to be constitutional, but the court overturned Scopes's conviction because the judge had set the fine instead of the jury.<ref>See Tenn. Const. art. VI, s. 14; see also, Scopes v. State, 154 Tenn. 105, 289 S.W. 363 (1926)</ref> The Butler Act remained in effect until May 18, 1967, when it was repealed by the Tennessee legislature.

Scopes may have been innocent of the crime with which his name is associated. After the trial, he admitted to reporter [[William Kinsey Hutchinson]] "I didn't violate the law,"{{sfn|De Camp|1968|page=435}} explaining that he had skipped the evolution lesson and that his lawyers had [[subornation of perjury|coached]] his students to testify; the Dayton businessmen had assumed that he had violated the law. Hutchinson did not file his story until after the Scopes appeal was decided in 1927.

In 1955, the trial was fictionalized as a play titled ''[[Inherit the Wind (play)|Inherit The Wind]]'' featuring [[Paul Muni]] as a character based on Clarence Darrow and [[Ed Begley]] as a character based on William Jennings Bryan. In 1960, a [[Inherit the Wind (1960 film)|movie version of the play]] featured [[Spencer Tracy]] as the Darrow character and [[Fredric March]] as the Bryan character.<ref name="NYT"/>

Both the play and the movie change the facts substantially. For example, the character of Bertram Cates is shown being arrested in class, put in jail, burned in effigy by frenzied, mean-spirited, and ignorant townspeople, and taunted by a preacher. The character of Matthew Harrison Brady, an almost comical fanatic, dramatically dies of a "busted belly" while attempting to deliver his summation in a chaotic courtroom. None of these incidents happened in Dayton, Tennessee during the trial.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.famous-trials.com/scopesmonkey/2115-inheritnotes|title = Notes on Inherit the Wind}}</ref>