On April 10, 2017 in the courtroom of the Posey Circuit Court the Posey County Bar Association and teachers and students from Mt. Vernon High School and North Posey High School will celebrate the Rule of Law. Law Day was established as a response to the Soviet Union’s military display on May Day.
This will be the thirty-fourth straight year the Bar and the schools have joined in the presentation of a Mock Trial in which the teachers guide their students in a jury trial. From 1984 until New Harmony High School closed the three schools rotated portraying the court personnel and each of two sides to a fictional case. Now the Bar Association provides the judge, Superior Court Judge Brent Almon, and the jury composed of attorneys.
The two high schools select students who enact the roles of witnesses called to testify by student attorneys who also argue their cases to the jury. The jury of practicing lawyers decides the outcome from which there is no appeal.
Over the years over a thousand Posey County students have learned by actual doing how their legal system works. Some of the student attorneys have gone on to become actual members of the Bar.
The Mock Trial is open to the public and will begin at 8:30 am on April 10. While cameras and recording devices are usually prohibited in Indiana courts, anyone who wishes to attend is welcome to take photographs and record the proceedings.
Next week the Mock Trial case and the names of the participants from the two high schools will be divulged.
Photo Taken by Rodney Fetcher
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