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Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Ind. Courts - Court of Appeals visits Benton Central High School
Meranda Watling reports on a Court of Appeals oral argument held at Benton Central High School in Oxford, Indiana last week. The case was William E. Riley v. State of Indiana, listed in last week's upcoming COA oral arguments. From the Lafayette Journal Courier story:
Judges Patricia Riley of Rensselaer, Margret Robb of West Lafayette and Paul Mathias of Fort Wayne presided over an appeal on a case from Lake County. * * *About 300 juniors and seniors attended the Benton Central hearing. So did a handful of local attorneys and Benton Circuit Court Judge Rex Kepner.
Audience questions ranged from how accurately the media portrays them -- not very, according to the judges -- to what the visiting judges thought of the school's neighboring windmills -- they were impressed.
Mathias said that although the job can be time consuming, eating as many as 50 to 60 hours a week, it's a privilege.
"Even though we do appeals ... 99.5 percent of the time (the decision on a case) stays the way the trial court resolved them," Mathias said.
"We take our job very seriously because we know the decisions we make change peoples lives."
Robb told the students that what they see on television and in movies is over-dramatized for entertainment purposes. Cases take years to solve, not 50 minutes. There isn't always DNA evidence. And when there is, results don't come back in five minutes.
"Sometimes, (the media) gives a false perception of what goes on," Robb said.
John Koehler, who teaches government and economics at the school, said the ability for his students to see state government action taking place live is a great supplement to their studies. He said often the curriculum in those courses focus on the national level.
"This is beneficial for our kids to see the state-level government like this actually functioning," Koehler said. "It takes court out of the entertainment world and the kids get the behind-the-scenes look."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 3, 2009 08:04 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts