<P> Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 ( $1395 in 2017 ) , 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 . William Jennings Bryan , three - time presidential candidate , argued for the prosecution , while Clarence Darrow , the famed defense attorney , spoke for Scopes . The trial publicized the Fundamentalist -- Modernist Controversy , which set Modernists , who said evolution was not inconsistent with religion , against Fundamentalists , who said the word of God as revealed in the Bible took priority over all human knowledge . The case was thus seen as both a theological contest and a trial on whether `` modern science '' should be taught in schools . </P>
who represented the state of tennessee in the scopes trial
William Jennings Bryan