Dr. Cory R. Lepage, Justice Center faculty, recently assigned his JUST 374 class, The Courts, to participate in a mock jury selection. Students playing the role of prosecutors and defense attorneys practiced voir dire - asking questions of potential jurors - during class. Students from JUST 110 and JUST 330 classes taught by Dr. Allan Barnes, from JUST 490 taught by Dr. Lindsey Blumenstein, and from JUST 200 and JUST 201 classes taught by Dr. Lepage, volunteered to play the role of prospective jurors. |
| Student Dominick Eubank (r) plays the role of prosecutor as he questions prospective volunteer student jurors. |
Students who were playing the role of lawyers were given an actual criminal case that had been decided in Alaska and had to prepare legally permissible questions to ask of each juror.
In this class exercise to demonstrate the voir dire process, attorneys for the prosecution and defense questioned potential jurors, and could request that a potential juror be removed from consideration as a juror for the case. The questioning of the potential jurors continued until the required number of jurors was selected. Dr. Lepage acted as the judge in the mock jury selection.
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| Dr. Lepage (center) explains the process of voir dire before the mock jury selection begins. |
