Darrow

This week's decision by the Kansas Board of Education to delete references to evolution from the science curriculum evokes memories of one of the century's most celebrated trials. In the summer of 1925, a Tennessee high school teacher named John T. Scopes was convicted of teaching evolution in violation of state law. The prosecution was led by three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, the defense by legendary attorney Clarence Darrow. That most famous of Evening Sun correspondents, H. L. Mencken, was in Dayton, Tenn.

IF ONLY Tennessee's lawmakers would listen, Sally Carstensen and Michael Weiss have something useful to say about the proposed ban on teaching evolution in that state's public schools.Ms. Carstensen and Mr. Weiss are painters and graduate students at the Maryland Institute, College of Art. Their work explores the gray areas of mental life "where definitions break down and the dynamics of abstract and intuitive thought begin," according to the exhibition brochure.The Tennessee legislature is suspicious of gray areas.

THE PEOPLE VS.CLARENCE DARROW.Geoffrey Cowan.Times Books.544 pages. $27.50. This book is a bitter pill for anyone who dreamed of going to law school to become another Clarence Darrow -- and, save for William F. Buckley and Rush Limbaugh, who of us over 40 didn't?As with most medicine, however, we'll be better off for it. Heroes are even more compelling with a bit of clay on their feet, and in "The People vs. Clarence Darrow," Geoffrey Cowan demonstrates that the great crusading lawyer didn't always play by the rules.

Santa Clara, California. - Karl S. Chambers of York, Pennsylvania, was convicted of beating an elderly woman to death with an ax handle because she refused to hand over her wallet. The deputy district attorney told the jury deciding his fate: ''Karl Chambers has taken a life. As the Bible says, 'and the murderer shall be put to death.' '' Defense counsel objected. The trial judge sustained the objection and told the jury to ignore the biblical exhortation.In a 6-1 ruling, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed Chambers' death sentence and said a mistrial should have been declared.

ACTOR LAURENCE Luckinbill thinks he has the best of all worlds with his one-man shows."But it is lonesome," he admits. "You look around and there isn't anybody to talk back. The worst part is when the stage manager says 'Place, please.' "Luckinbill's latest solo production is "Clarence Darrow," in which he portrays the late maverick lawyer who is probably best known for his defense of the right of John T. Scopes to teach the theory of evolution to school children.The show is scheduled for one performance only at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Medical School Teaching Facility at the University of Maryland at Baltimore.

ON THE WEEKEND WATCH:MORE DEAD SHOWS -- Into the summer rerun season, the networks are offering what will perhaps be last-chance viewings of series from the long list of canceled fare. Just tonight, for example, ABC (Channel 13) has moved "Gabriel's Fire" to 9 o'clock (although star James Earl Jones is coming back in the fall as the same character in a new show, "Bird and Katt"). And CBS (Channel 11) has two returns, the mid-season replacement about a Cajun cop, "Broken Badges" at 9, and Edward Woodward's rather likable "Over My Dead Body" at 10. Note also that CBS on Sunday (10 p.m.)

Every BMW-driving, yuppified, will-I-make-partner-obsessed lawyer in America ought to be forced to sit before a TV set for a couple of hours tomorrow night.Tune it to PBS' "American Playhouse" and let them see the potential of their once-noble profession that has become for too many of its practitioners just another way to make money.They would be watching a fascinating, if flawed, biography of one of the country's most celebrated lawyers, Clarence Darrow. The two-hour production, "Darrow," will be on Maryland Public Television, channels 22 and 67, at 10 o'clock.