Thursday, December 11, 2014

Dr. Lepage's JUST 374 Courts class participates in exercise on mock jury selection

Case Mohr, student prosecutor (at podium), addresses the jury. Student co-counsel sit at tables in foreground and in background.
Dr. Cory Lepage's JUST 374 class, The Courts, recently participated 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 Intro to Justice classes taught by Dr. Allan Barnes, Dr. Troy Payne, and Dr. Lepage volunteered to play the role of prospective jurors.

A prospective student juror answers a question during voir dire.
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.

Dr. Lepage explains the process of voir dire.