Jury Trials in the Classroom

Grades 5-8

Betty M. See

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000494082
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

Transform your classroom into a courtroom and get ready for students to take part in a great learning adventure. The six trial simulations in this book let students delve into criminal and civil law with motivating cases that mirror situations in fairy tales, nursery rhymes, literature, and history. In the roles of attorneys, members of the jury, defendants, witnesses, and courtroom personnel, students prepare and conduct cases. They will learn to use statements of fact and witness affidavits to determine guilt or innocence.The book is divided into three sections that:

• define the types of courts in the U.S. court system;
• explain how to carry out a mock trial; and
• give six ready-to-use court cases, including all necessary documents.

The court cases allow students to understand both criminal and civil trials, with three types of each case. The cases allow you to stage trials involving Hansel and Gretel, John Wilkes Booth, Little Miss Muffet, Romeo and Juliet, Jack and Jill, and Little Red Riding Hood. Don't miss this opportunity to teach critical thinking and teach students how to weigh opposing points of view. The exciting results will motivate students to exercise their reasoning skills, polish their communication skills, and apply knowledge of the legal system. This will become one of your favorite classroom adventures.For more judicial activities, see Blind Justice and On Trial.Grades 5-8

Part 1
Building a Foundation

1
Understanding the Judicial System

DOI: 10.4324/9781003236092-3

The Judicial System and Schools

Ever since the ancient Greeks, civilizations have sought to bring to justice those individuals or groups believed to have broken society’s rules. They may have been charged with committing a crime against laws written by governing bodies, or they may have been perceived as violating the civil rights of others.

Through personal experiences and the media, today’s students are exposed to the judicial process to a greater extent than ever before. Hence, one of the challenges teachers face is to help pupils understand the complexities of the U.S. legal system.

When teaching a U.S. government curriculum, teachers can usually provide students with many practical examples of how the executive and legislative branches of government operate. Classroom elections and student government meetings offer the opportunity for students to experience how these branches work. Indeed, the administration and faculty are themselves examples of the executive branch, and decision making by students in the classroom is, to a certain extent, legislative activity.

Sorely lacking in most curricula is an in-depth study of the U.S. judicial system. Unfortunately, the perception of the mechanics of how the jury system works is often formed by fictional trials depicted in movies or on TV, where justice triumphs through some miraculous last-minute revelation. The planning, hard work, and knowledge necessary to bring a case to trial are glossed over.

A Challenging Curriculum

As teachers, we can read about the trial process, or we can provide students with opportunities to experience the challenges each side faces in bring a trial to court. Mock trials are the perfect vehicles for allowing this to happen. When working with the evidence and statements of witnesses, students use higher-level thinking skills to plan their strategies and represent the best possible case for their side. The importance of inferential reading skills becomes readily evident. Cooperative learning takes place naturally. Teamwork, which is usually associated with the athletic field, becomes an absolute necessity if a side is to present its case most effectively. As students plan their mock trials, they learn how to evaluate evidence and formulate questions so they can present their case in the best possible light.

Although a jury verdict in its favor might seem to indicate a win for a team, students soon realize that in some instances, no matter how well they have planned their legal strategies, their side is not likely to win.

Students as Attorneys

Aspiring lawyers spend three years in law school. During that time, they participate in a number of mock trials (such as moot court, competitions, practice court, and trial advocacy classes). Even after obtaining a law degree and becoming a trial attorney, it may be some time before the new lawyer actually serves as the lead counsel for a case. The fact that an individual’s freedom or civil right is at stake demands that attorneys have experience in hypothetical cases and in assisting other attorneys before they assume the actual responsibility of trying a case themselves.

Obviously, we cannot expect students to perform as professional attorneys with the amount of training they can receive in a classroom setting. We can, however, make them aware of what is involved in the judicial procedure to help them understand the many hours of preparation that go into a trial before it actually reaches the courtroom. By learning how our court system works, students will have a better understanding of judicial decisions that affect their lives.

Famous Real Cases

In the famous Scopes trial, John T. Scopes, a high school teacher, was charged with violating Tennessee law by teaching evolution.

Famous murder trials include the Lindbergh kidnaping trial in which Bruno Hauptmann was charged with the murder of aviator Charles Lindbergh’s baby son. Hauptmann was convicted and later executed. Another notable murder trial was the Leopold-Loeb case, in which the defendants confessed to killing their cousins, Bobby Franks. They were saved from the gallows by the eloquence of lawyer Clarence Darrow. More recently, former football player OJ. Simpson has been the object of worldwide attention, both in winning an acquittal in the criminal murder trial in which he was accused of killing his former wife and her friend and in losing in the subsequent civil trial brought by members of the victims’ families.

Decisions handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court have played a major role in changing our society. The Dred Scott decision in 1857 was a major setback for slaves seeking their freedom. Scott, who lived in the Minnesota Territory, sued for his freedom based on the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which prohibited slavery in federal territories. The Supreme Court declared the already-repealed Compromise unconstitutional because it deprived a person of his personal property -a slave - without due process of law. It further stated that African Americans who were descendants of slaves had no rights as American citizens. Fortunately, this Court decision was invalidated by the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868.

In Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 the Court declared that restrictions on a person’s use of public schools and public accommodations, such as hotels, restaurants, and transportation facilities based on ethnicity, was legal. It was not until the 1950s that the Civil Rights movement forced a change. The decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954 struck a major blow for school desegregation.

Undoubtedly, students have seen an individual being read his or her rights to remain silent and to have an attorney present for questioning. This milestone in civil rights is the result of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Miranda v. Arizona. (1966).

Clearly, court cases such as these paint a portrait of the historical context in which they were tried. Their relevance is in the influence they have on our everyday lives. As a middle school teacher, you can bring the judicial system to life by showing students the impact judicial rulings continue to have on society today. The mock trial is the perfect means by which to do this.

2
Court Systems of the United States

DOI: 10.4324/9781003236092-4

One of the chief purposes of government, according to the U.S. Constitution, is to ensure domestic tranquillity. The primary function of every court system is to fulfill the promises of peace and order implied in the Constitution. The courts, as part of the judicial branch of government, seek to resolve problems arising out of civil and criminal law. Were it not for these courts, an atmosphere of violence and anarchy might prevail.

The U.S. court system is one of the most complex in the world, with courts on almost every level of government. Each state has a supreme court, courts of appeal, and courts of lower jurisdiction, that handle minor civil and criminal offenses. The highest court in the land is, of course, the U.S. Supreme Court. The following diagram gives a general idea of how the U.S. court system is structured.

State Courts

As stated above, each of the fifty states has its own court system, which typically consists of trial courts and appellate courts, including a state supreme court.

Trial Courts

Also known as “trials of first instance,” trial courts deal with parties in conflict, hear witnesses, review evidence and facts, and reach a decision or verdict. These courts may be divided further into criminal courts and civil courts.

• Criminal courts handle cases in which individuals are accused of a crime. The trial may be heard before a jury, or the defendant may elect to have the judge decide the verdict. If the defendant is judged guilty, the punishment will vary, depending on the severity of the crime and other factors such as a prior criminal record
• Civil courts deal with private disputes between individuals or corporations. The public is not involved in civil actions, and the state does not prosecute them as it does criminal cases. The object of a civil case in which the defendant is judged to be wrong is to attempt to restore the situation to what it might have been had no legal wrong been committed. In many instances, the defendant may have to pay money to the wronged party. These are called compensatory damages. Punitive damages are sometimes awarded against a defendant to punish him or her and to let the community know that such behavior will not be tolerated.

Court systems governing trial courts may vary widely from place to place. Major population centers may have courts of general jurisdiction, but to expedite matters, they may be organized into special branches such as criminal, civil, traffic, and juvenile courts. In many areas, these courts are known as inferior courts. They handle minor civil and criminal cases (such as misdemeanors and minor felonies). They may also handle preliminary parts of more serious criminal cases such as setting bail, advising the accused of his or her rights, appointing defense counsel, and deciding whether evidence justifies holding a defendant for a trial in a higher or superior court.

Appellate Courts and Supreme Courts

Appellate courts handle cases in which the fairness of the lower court’s decision is in question. Most states refer to their highest court as a supreme court. New York is a notable exception, calling its highest court the Court of Appeals and using the designation of “supreme court” for lower courts. Some states do not have intermediate appellate courts.

Joshua Bartholomew has been arrested in Midville. His is accused of armed robbery of a Midville convenience store. After reviewing the evidence, the municipal judge has set bail, and Mr. Bartholomew is sent to the local jail until bail can be posted. Mr. Bartholomew has retained the services of a local attorney (had he been unable to do so because of insufficient financial resources, a court-appointed attorney would have been named). Because of the seriousness of the charges against the defendant, the trial is transferred to a higher or superior court.

In our case, Joshua Bartholomew, the defendant who was charged with armed robbery, has been found guilty by the jury hearing the trial. The judge has sentenced Mr. Bartholomew to the state penitentiary. Mr. Bartholomew’s attorney is appealing the verdict on the grounds that the judge made errors during the trial; that is, the judge did not allow several pieces of evidence to be introduced that would have been favorable to the defendant. The appellate court will review the case and, i...