To cast doubt on the truthfulness and reliability of prosecution witnesses, a defense attorney can use any or all of these tactics: Demonstrate bias on the part of prosecution witnesses, who, therefore, may be lying. Expose police mistakes in gathering, maintaining, and testing physical evidence.
Full Answer
â The Scopes Trial was about the teaching of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in schools. â The Anti-Evolution League of America was set up to campaign against the teaching of evolution in schools, because it went against the fundamentalist interpretation of the biblical story of creation.
Scopes was defended by the famous lawyer, Clarence Darrow, an agnostic. He turned the trial into a discussion about fundamentalism, put William Jennings Bryan on the stand and called his fundamentalist beliefs foolish. What was the verdict in the Scopes Trial?
In the case Scopes v. State (1925), Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, but, on appeal, the Supreme Court of Tennessee, pointing to a technicality in the issuance of the fine, overturned Scopesâs conviction, while finding the Butler Act constitutional.
The Scopes âmonkey trialâ was the moniker journalist H. L. Mencken applied to the 1925 prosecution of a criminal action brought by the state of Tennessee against high school teacher John T. Scopes for violating the stateâs Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in public schools.
According to US law, the defendant can only receive the verdict of âguiltyâ if the evidence presented to the courts points toward their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. If the jury, or in some cases the judge, does not receive satisfactory evidence, they will not be able to charge the defendant with committing the crime.
While the above criminal defense strategies have all proven to get a case dismissed, it is important to remember that each criminal case is entirely unique. The best criminal lawyers will look at several factors and develop a theory based on the specific details of the case at hand.
Strong criminal defense strategies can make the difference between a criminal defendant being found guilty and charged with an alleged crime, and the accused going free. Therefore, this is the most important part of a case for all criminal defense lawyers.
The most common defense. The most common defense is that the prosecution failed to prove the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. By raising questions about the credibility of the prosecution's witnesses, the defense counsel seeks to create reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors so they will acquit the defendant.
Defense Strategies. Defenses are arguments with supporting evidence that a defense attorney puts forth to secure the freedom of his or her client. A defense grows out of a defendant's version of the events in the alleged crime.
When developing a defense strategy, the defense attorney considers the credibility of defense and prosecution witnesses, community attitudes toward the crime and the defendant, and the nature of the prosecution's evidence.
An important ethical rule is that a defense attorney can't knowingly encourage or help a defendant lie under oath (in other words, commit perjury) and consequently is forbidden to call a witness who he or she knows will lie on the witness stand.
Even if a defense attorney knows his or her client is guilty, the attorney can crossâexamine prosecution witnesses and poke holes in the prosecution's case . This procedure is permissible because it is the defense attorney's responsibility to make the prosecution prove its case.
Chief Defense Lawyers: Clarence Darrow, Arthur Garfield Hays, and Dudley Field Malone. SIGNIFICANCE: The John Thomas Scopes trial checked the influence of Fundamentalism in public education and stripped William Jennings Bryan of his dignity as a key figure in American political history.
SIGNIFICANCE: The John Thomas Scopes trial checked the influence of Fundamentalism in public education and stripped William Jennings Bryan of his dignity as a key figure in American political history.
The prosecution's case was presented briskly. The superintendent of the Rhea County school system testified that Scopes had admitted teaching evolution in a biology class. Stewart then offered a King James Version of the Bible as evidence of what the Butler Act described as the Biblical account of Creation.
Just as quickly, the ACLU confirmed it was prepared to defend Scopes. Using a state-approved textbook, Scopes taught a lesson on evolutionary theory on April 24 to his Rhea County High School science class.
On the first business day of the trial, the defense tried and failed to quash the indictment on grounds that the law violated both the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states that no one may be deprived of rights without due process of law, and the freedom of religion clause of the First Amendment.
Arrested on May 7, Scopes was quickly indicted by the grand jury, setting the stage for what newspaper headline writers were already calling the "Monkey Trial.".
Evolution on Trial. The trial began Friday, July 10, 1925, with Judge John T. Raulston presiding. More than 900 spectators packed the sweltering courtroom. Because of an error in the original indictment, most of the first morning was spent selecting another grand jury and drawing up a new indictment. With that task done, a trial jury of 10 farmers, ...
Wells replied that he had no legal training in Britain, let alone in America, and declined the offer. John R. Neal, a law school professor from Knoxville, announced that he would act as Scopes' attorney whether Scopes liked it or not, and he became the nominal head of the defense team.
His teachings, and His teachings alone, can solve the problems that vex the heart and perplex the world. After eight days of trial, it took the jury only nine minutes to deliberate. Scopes was found guilty on July 21 and ordered by Raulston to pay a $100 fine (equivalent to $1,500 in 2020).
The confrontation between Bryan and Darrow lasted approximately two hours on the afternoon of the seventh day of the trial. It is likely that it would have continued the following morning but for Judge Raulston's announcement that he considered the whole examination irrelevant to the case and his decision that it should be "expunged" from the record. Thus Bryan was denied the chance to cross-examine the defense lawyers in return, although after the trial Bryan would distribute nine questions to the press to bring out Darrow's "religious attitude". The questions and Darrow's short answers were published in newspapers the day after the trial ended, with The New York Times characterizing Darrow as answering Bryan's questions "with his agnostic's creed, 'I don't know,' except where he could deny them with his belief in natural, immutable law".
Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 (equivalent to $1,500 in 2020), but the verdict was overturned on a technicality. The trial served its purpose of drawing intense national publicity, as national reporters flocked to Dayton to cover the big-name lawyers who had agreed to represent each side.
John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case in July 1925 in which a high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee 's Butler Act, which had made it unlawful to teach human evolution in ...
The ACLU had originally intended to oppose the Butler Act on the grounds that it violated the teacher's individual rights and academic freedom , and was therefore unconstitutional. Principally because of Clarence Darrow, this strategy changed as the trial progressed. The earliest argument proposed by the defense once the trial had begun was that there was actually no conflict between evolution and the creation account in the Bible; later, this viewpoint would be called theistic evolution. In support of this claim, they brought in eight experts on evolution. But other than Dr. Maynard Metcalf, a zoologist from Johns Hopkins University, the judge would not allow these experts to testify in person. Instead, they were allowed to submit written statements so their evidence could be used at the appeal. In response to this decision, Darrow made a sarcastic comment to Judge Raulston (as he often did throughout the trial) on how he had been agreeable only on the prosecution's suggestions. Darrow apologized the next day, keeping himself from being found in contempt of court.
He also warned the jury not to judge the merit of the law (which would become the focus of the trial) but on the violation of the Act, which he called a 'high misdemeanor' . The jury foreman himself was unconvinced of the merit of the Act but he acted, as did most of the jury, on the instructions of the judge.
The trial was viewed as an opportunity to challenge the constitutionality of the bill, to publicly advocate for the legitimacy of Darwinâs theory of evolution, and to enhance the profile of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
John Scopes. What became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial began as a publicity stunt for the town of Dayton, Tennessee. A local businessman met with the school superintendent and a lawyer to discuss using the ACLU offer to get newspapers to write about the town.
Darrowâs goal in getting involved was to debunk fundamentalist Christianity and raise awareness of a narrow, fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible. It was the only time in his career he offered to give free legal aid. Bryan and Darrow set the tone by immediately attacking each other in the press.
Bryan arrived in Dayton three days before the trial, stepping off a train to the spectacle of half the town greeting him. He posed for photo opportunities and gave two public speeches, stating his intention to not only defend the anti-evolution law but to use the trial to debunk evolution entirely. Recommended for you.
The trial day started with crowds pouring into the courthouse two hours before it was scheduled to begin , filling up the room and causing onlookers to spill into the hallways. There was applause when Bryan entered the court and further when he and Darrow shook hands.
The trial was viewed as an opportunity to challenge the constitutionality of the bill, to publicly advocate for the legitimacy of Darwinâs theory of evolution , and to enhance the profile of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
It was to a packed courthouse on Monday that arguments began by the defense working to establish the scientific validity of evolution, while the prosecution focused on the Butler Act as an education standard for Tennessee citizens, citing precedents.