Anatomy of a Trial [Period 4, Class #1, 5-13]

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

Class today was meeting in the Danger Room, which they might realize looked very much like a courtroom. Their professor entered with a cup of tea in one hand and a briefcase in the other.

Alex had decided the best way to teach this class -- at least this first week -- was to dive in and pretend it was a courtroom scenario, at least at the outset. They were teenagers, most of them; they should catch on rather quickly.

"Thank you for being here," Alex said, setting her briefcase down on the long table in front of her. "I know jury duty is generally seen as a thankless nuisance, but the court appreciates your civic duty. We're going to start with a voir dire session as we empanel a jury. Those of you who are selected will be seated to hear a case; those of you who are excused may go home, with our thanks."

"Voir dire means that we ask you to speak the truth. Both the defense attorney and I will be asking a number of questions so that we can be sure to seat an impartial jury, one that has no preconceptions or prejudices on the issues we're going to be facing in court. Therefore, we'll be asking a number of questions both related to the accused -- William T. Thornsmith -- and his alleged victim, as well as more general concerns.

"Once we've asked our questions, certain participants may be stricken for cause -- if either side can make a compelling argument that the potential juror is too biased to follow the rule of law -- or dismissed summarily by either side via 'peremptory challenge,' which simply means that one of us feels we'd rather that juror not serve. We only have ten each, and if either of us are caught using them discriminatorily -- that is, to eliminate members of a specific gender, ethnic group, or sexuality -- our challenges may be overturned.

"All you need to concern yourself with is answering questions as honestly as you can. The rest, you can leave to the lawyers; that's why we're so overpaid." She smiled at her students. "Shall we?"

(wait for the OCD! OCD of wtf-was-I-thinking-DOOM is up!)

Comments

Sign In! - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

Having lunch!

Re: Sign In! - ANAT01

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

Hyuuga Hinata

During the Lecture - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

Fidget in those uncomfortable jury chairs. Wonder WTF is going on. Take notes. Chit-chat, if you can do so in a non-disruptive manner.

Re: During the Lecture - ANAT01

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

Hinata's eyes were a bit wide as she took in the situation and the chairs but only for a few seconds. After that she was busy listening to the Professor and writing out detailed notes.

It would all make sense eventually, right?

Re: During the Lecture - ANAT01

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Squall was intrigued, and waited to see what happened next. Of course a jury had to be impartial, but he hadn't ever thought about how you'd make sure it was.

Re: During the Lecture - ANAT01

[glacial_queen]

Karla was fidgeting in her chair all right, but it had little to do with what was happening in class. She was just thinking about the last time she'd seen her teacher. And how that circumstance had not actually been beneficial for her ego.

Re: During the Lecture - ANAT01

[wwiii]

This was already actually a really neat class, Warren decided.

... Except for the chair, which was less than neat and uncomfortable in far too many ways from the shoulders on down. He squirmed. A lot.

Re: During the Lecture - ANAT01

[telekineticfury.livejournal.com]

Vance actually wasn't too uncomfortable in his chair. Was he cheating by creating a thin telekinetic cushion under his butt? Maybe. Okay, definitely. But you couldn't blame him, could you?

Activity #1 - Voir Dire from the Jury Side - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

Alex segued cleanly from her lecture into the voir dire question model.

"For the following questions, raise your hand if your answer is 'yes.' I'll follow up more closely with you thereafter. If you're unsure, raise your hand anyway, and we'll discuss. There aren't any wrong answers: we just want to know the truth."

(please hold for massive OCD: I didn't know how else to do this without it getting messy.)

Q1 - Voir Dire - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

Has any member of your family -- yourself included -- ever been arrested, or served time in prison?

Q2 - Voir Dire - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

Does any member of your family -- yourself included -- work in law enforcement in any capacity?

Q3 - Voir Dire - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

Have you ever been the victim of a violent crime?

Q4 - Voir Dire - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

The victim in this case was killed by a hunting rifle. Do you own any type of rifle, handgun, pistol, or other firearm?

Q5 - Voir Dire - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

Do you believe individuals should not be allowed to own firearms, or that firearm ownership should be severely restricted?

Q6 - Voir Dire - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

The defendant and the victim were dating at the time of the murder, although they belong to different ethnic groups. Do you have any concerns with individuals from separate ethnic groups being romantically involved?

Q7 - Voir Dire - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

The victim was a dancer at an exotic night club. Do you have any strong feelings about women who work as exotic dancers?

Activity #2 - Voir Dire as a Lawyer - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

"As you may have noticed," Alex said, "the questions above were both general and specific to this particular case. If you were doing voir dire on a prostitution case, you wouldn't need to ask which members of the jury own handguns; you'd be more concerned about whether any of them had ever paid money (or been paid money) for sexual gratification.

"Each of you has a potential jury waiting, and each of you has a brief summation of a case in a folder. Now that you've seen how it's done, show me what you've got. Ask all the questions you like. Confer with the judge, if you need assistance; since we're just learning here, she'll be helpful."

Find your thread! Approach the bench if you need to ask the judge what's going on. (The judge is a blonde woman, older than Alex, who looks fierce. In a Tyra way, and not a "vicious predator" way.) Ask your potential jurors to raise their hands and answer your questions, and NPCs will ping in -- try to phrase the questions to be more-or-less yes-or-no, so you can ask for a show of hands and follow up with the hand-wavers. Got it?

(and again with: massive OCD, just to keep it all straight)

Hinata Hyuuga: Case File - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

A young college student was allegedly driving while intoxicated. She lost control of her vehicle, seriously injuring herself and two of her passengers.

Karla: Case File - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

An unemployed man is charged with setting fire to three libraries in the tri-state area, causing thousands of dollars of damage.

Squall Leonhart: Case File - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

A doctor is charged with writing illegal and unnecessary prescriptions for patients, including one woman who has since been hospitalized.

Vance Astrovik: Case File - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

Three security guards have been arrested and accused of an armed bank robbery, performed just after the bank closed but while employees were still inside.

Warren Worthington III: Case File - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

The defendant, an aspiring actress, has been charged with multiple counts of fraud, including check-kiting, embezzlement, and identity theft.

Discussion - Voir Dire and/or Intros - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

How did your voir dire go? What do you think about the process of voir dire? Would you use peremptory challenges on any of your jurors? How does your answer change if you assume you were the defense attorney, and not a prosecutor?

"Incidentally," Alex added, "my name is Alex Cabot, I'm an Assistant District Attorney, and I'll be teaching Anatomy of a Trial. If you'd like to introduce yourselves, now's the time."

Talk to Alex - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

Ask for the TA gig*. Ask what's wrong with her. Ask why she has such a thing for cops. (She really does.)

(*It's been spoken for OOC, so just Karla on that one, please!)

Re: Talk to Alex - ANAT01

[glacial_queen]

There was a hesitant Karla edging up to Alex's desk. "This was a really good class, Professor," she said in the too-bright tone of someone who isn't sure of her reception. "When you talked about the impartiality of the law last semester, I hadn't realized just how far it went."

OOC - ANAT01

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

IDEK, guys. Small class so I figured we could go nuts with it, since I don't have to worry about NPC-ing for 20. You're not obliged to play along, obviously, but if you want to, let's rock. :)

Also, I'm using other people from L&O to serve as your NPC jury -- the person who looks like Olivia Benson might just happen to look like her, but not have the same backstory. The judge, if needed, is going to be Liz Donnelly the Severely Kickass.

Lastly: I kept with lighter felonies in the case file summaries, in the hopes of not accidentally hitting trigger spots, IC or OOC, but I may not have succeeded. If your case file is bothersome, for any reason, you have my apologies: tag me here or via e-mail and I'll conjure up something else. (You don't even have to explain the objection: just "I'm not comfortable with mine" is fine.)

I lied, that wasn't lastly, this is: since Alex's experiences are from some of the ugliest, most unpleasant trauma-spots in criminal court, she does not shy away from painful subject matters. Please consider this a general warning that conversations about murder and violence will be routine. If there's something you'd like me to have her steer clear of, let me know; you're also perfectly welcome to handwave, or have your character leave, if he or she is uncomfortable with the topic.

Re: OOC - ANAT01

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

Question! From the wrong account but shhh. In the Voir Dire as a Lawyer threads, should we be doing a mini OCD much like how the questions were asked of our students up in the Voir Dire section of the OCD? Or should we have them ask one question then wait for an NPC response and then reply to that with the next question?

... I hope that made sense. SO hoping that made sense.