ALL RISE. THE Junior Judge and Jury program now in session.

This spring, students from four school districts participated as pilot sites for the Junior Magistrate/First Jury (Junior Judge and Jury) program that allows high school students to serve as judges and jury members in real court trials. The students do not replace the actual judges and jurors; they work alongside the real ones.

About five students per school from Concord, Exeter, Manchester West and Nashua high schools served as junior judges in Superior Court and 12 West students served as a junior jury during a Superior Court trial. The students were the first NH participants in the program, which is an expansion of a non-profit, Boston-based parent program called First Vote.

Superior Court Chief Justice Walter L. Murphy worked with Christopher A. Moore, president and executive director of the Massachusetts program, and with representatives of the NH, Manchester and Nashua bar associations to bring Junior Judge and Jury to NH. (See the Feb. 9, 2001 issue of Bar News for the story.) "With the chief justice’s imprint on it, support and backing behind it, others became interested in the program," said Moore.

Local organizers of Junior Judge and Jury decided to test it this spring in four school districts, to show that it could be a valuable learning tool and successful program. "It not only met, but exceeded, my expectations in terms of the excitement it produced in the students," Moore said.

In the Junior Magistrate portion of the program, students apply to serve alongside judges during trial. Any student can sign up by filling out a questionnaire and soliciting teacher recommendations. Staff members from Junior Judge and Jury evaluate each application to select participants.

Each elected junior magistrate first meets with his or her assigned trial judge to discuss the judge’s role and responsibilities and background, the student’s personal history, goals and more. Then it’s off to court, where the junior magistrate, donning a judge’s robe, sits beside the judge on the bench, the two conferring throughout trial. In some cases, junior magistrates will sit for both morning and afternoon court sessions and could sit for two to three days, depending on the court’s calendar and cases on the docket. A wrap-up meeting between senior and junior magistrate ends each day in court.

Josh William-son, 17, a junior at Exeter High School who participated in the pilot program this spring as a junior judge, said he "learned so much from this experience." He shadowed Judge Gillian Abramson in Rockingham County Superior Court.

Williamson said that serving as a junior judge gave him a new view of the law, both what happens in the courtroom and the work a judge does behind closed doors. "During a typical day…there is a sereneness to the courtroom; however, only a privileged few are allowed to witness the pandemonium that plays out behind closed doors," he said. "This program gave us the opportunity to see what happens behind those closed doors. It’s really exciting."

"It was so much fun," said Williamson. "I’d like to tell a lot of kids out there who don’t know about the program that it is excellent."

Moore said that some of the judges when approached about participating in the program had some reservations about sharing the bench with a junior magistrate. "The bench is their ‘sanctum.’ It was tough for some judges to let a student sit beside them," he said. Once the program had been tested, though, those judges seemed to have enjoyed the experience, according to Moore.

Rockingham County Superior Court Judge Phillip Hollman, who was shadowed by Exeter High junior Rebecca Hawthorne, age 17, said that his junior judge got a good look at our justice system in action – which is quite different from the courtroom scenes of television and movies. "I think the students acquire a much greater appreciation of what really happens in our courts. Sometimes you can be misled by what happens on TV," Hollman said.

The Junior Jury portion of the program takes six or12 high school students through the process of serving on a jury. Students first fill out a questionnaire to determine their willingness to act impartially on any particular case. As with a real jury, members of the junior jury are selected to reflect the diversity of the community.

The Manchester West students serving as junior jurors were brought to the Manchester law firm Hall, Hess, Stewart, Murphy & Brown, where attorney Francis G. Murphy briefed them on some of the legal terminology and procedure they’d likely hear and experience. The jury of students was then brought together at the assigned courthouse, where they observed a real criminal trial, as the adult jury heard the case: opening and closing arguments, evidence and witnesses, jury instructions from the judge. They then retired to a jury room, elected a foreperson and began deliberations in private with no adult supervision or instructions. Once they reached a verdict, it was delivered to the trial judge in the same courtroom as the adult jury. The exercise concluded with a discussion of their experiences with the judge in chambers.

Moore said that now the pilot First Judge and Jury program has proven successful, organizers plan to expand the program to schools across NH beginning this fall. "The pilot programs were to get this established, to show that it could work in New Hampshire courts. Now that we’ve done what we said we’d do, we plan to build on it and put in place an ongoing program," said Moore. "With an established program, it should be easier to get more support, both financial and from the judges and schools," Moore said.

The following is a list of sponsors of First Magistrate/Junior Jury of New Hampshire program and a list of participants in this spring’s pilot program.

Abramson, Brown & Dugan

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