Well, not officially. But in the seventh grade in the Gifted and Talented program at Belmont Middle School in New Hampshire recently they did. The students opened a civil case and held a mock trial. Students participated as jurors and audience members.
What a great idea!
Here’s the skinny:
A hung jury was declared Friday during the civil case against Lizzie Borden after jurors could not come to an unanimous vote.
Borden has been dead for some 82 years but the seventh grade students in the Gifted and Talented program at Belmont Middle School re-opened a civil case during a mock trial that took place at the Laconia District Court with students participating as jurors and audience members.
For the past three months, the students have been compiling evidence and rehearsing their presentation of the civil case against Lizzie Borden who was acquitted in a criminal case for the murders of her father and stepmother.
The mock trial was part of their study of the Constitution, which applies to the Fifth Amendment and the Double Jeopardy law.
Gifted and Talented teacher Laura Dwyer said she feels that civics is one area in the school curriculum that does not receive much attention and programs such as the mock trial give the students a real-life experience of the courtroom.
“The mock trial program is important. It reminds them of their civic duty and always makes them aware of their civic responsibility,” said Dwyer. “When they get into the court like this, it becomes real.”
Dwyer believes civics should be reinforced in the schools and, if started in the elementary schools, it can have a lasting impression for students.During the students’ case study, they canalized the case and met with the author of “Lizzie Borden Took An Axe, or Did She?” by Annette M. Holba to discuss details of the case. In addition, students traveled to Fall River, Mass., to visit the Lizzie Borden Inn where the actual murders took place to gather evidence as part of their trial. Students spent the night in Fall River and the next day were greeted by a historian and lawyer who gave a bit of history about the criminal case as well as helping them to analyze clues during their visit.
Acting as the judge in the civil case on Friday was Attorney Sally O’Brien, the corporate counsel for New Hampshire Ball Bearings and an adjunct professor at Franklin Pierce Law Center.
“I think the students did a really great job,” said O’Brien. “They took this case and wrote it from a criminal case to a civil case and that’s hard to do.”
O’Brien said that many of the students throughout the years that have been involved with the competition have gone onto law school and she believes the program is a great way to introduce young students into civics.
“It’s just really fulfilling to see students start here and go to law school,” said O’Brien. “The students know they can do this and it’s huge.”
Throughout the mock trial, O’Brien gave the students advice on how to go through proceedings in a courtroom. Students called witnesses to the stand and integrated them as if they sworn in under a real justice.
A jury comprising a few students and Shaker Regional School District Superintendent Michael Cozort sat in the courtroom as the details were revealed. After the jury went into deliberation, they came back and a hung jury was announced.
“If I get the students involved at this level, then when they get to the high school they’ll call for government and civics in education,” Dwyer said.
