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Darrow had exposed Bryan as a near embicile. Darrow asked for and was granted an immediate and direct verdict, thereby blocking Bryan from giving a speech he had been preparing for weeks. After eight minutes of deliberation, the jury returned with a verdict of guilty and the judge ordered Scopes to pay a fine of $100, the minimum the law allowed. In his last words to the court, Scopes, the man who was reluctant from the start, said, Your Honor, I feel I have been convicted of violating an unjust statute. I will continue in the future...to oppose this law in any way I can. Any other action would be in violation of my idea of academic freedom".
Only five days after the trial ended, Jennings passed away in his sleep.
In January of 1927, the State Supreme Court of Tennessee overturned the verdict on a technicality as the jury should have assessed the fine and not the judge. Darrow did not want this to happen as the law remained untested.
"Science gets to the end of its knowledge and, in effect, says, 'I do not know what I do not know,' and keeps on searching. Religion gets to the end of its knowledge, and in effect, says, 'I know what I do not know,' and stops searching."
-Clarence Darrow |
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