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Transcription
TUCSON, ARIZONA, SUND
ANTI-EVOLUTION
LAW SUSTAINED
IN SCOPES CASE
But Court Refuses to Confirm
Conviction, Due to Ille-
gal Sentence.
CHARGES DISMISSED
Judges Unanimously Advise
Against Continued
Prosecution.
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 15 (By
The Associated Press)—Tennessee’s
supreme court today proclaimed the
fundamental soundness of the
state’s famous law against teaching
the theory of evolution in state-
supported schools. At the same time it reversed the verdict of
guiltiness against John T. Scopes,
whose case was on appeal, and then
barred recourse to the United States
supreme court by recommending that the case be nolle prossed instead of re-tried. This was done late today and the case dismissed.
Without a dissenting vote, the
court recommended to L. D. Smith,
state attorney-general, that the
“peace and dignity” of the state
would best be served by a nolle
prosse, thus ending what the court termed “this bizarre case,” ance
and for all. Mr. Smith announced he would follow the recommendation and would not seek a re-trial.
Says Act Uncertain
The opinion declaring the law
constitutional was delivered by
Chief Justice Green and concurred in by two other justices, but Justice McKinney dissented on the ground that the act’s “uncertainty of meaning,” rendered it invalid.
The conviction of Scopes, who was a science teacher in Dayton high school, was reversed because Judge John T. Raulston, presiding, fined him $100, when the jury failed to fix a fine. The high court held that only a jury may fix a fine of more than $50 under Tennessee law.
While obviously disappointed over the action of the court, counsel for Scopes pointed to certain features as indicating a partial victory for the opponents of the law. Expressing satisfaction with the dissenting opinion of Justice McKinney, they viewed as favorable also a part of Justice Chambliss’ opinion, which differed in one phase from the majority decision.
Agrees Law Is Sound
Justice Chambliss, while agreeing with Chief Justice Green and Justice Cook, as to the organic soundness of the act, declared his belief that the act “only prohibits the teaching of the materialistic theory of evolution, which denies the hand of God in the creation of man.”
Commenting on this opinion, Henry E. Colton, attorney for the Tennessee Academy of Science, and an associate in Scopes’ counsel, asserted that this view was not opposed to the known posit—