Bar News - October 19, 2007
“On the Road” Special Session Scheduled for Bow High School
The New Hampshire Supreme Court will hold a special session on October 25 at Bow High School before an audience of more than 500 students from 12 area high schools invited to participate in the court’s 9th “On the Road” program.
The moderator for the Supreme Court special session, which will be held in the Bow High School auditorium at 32 White Rock Hill Road, will be Superior Court Justice Carol Ann Conboy, the presiding justice at the Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord. Seating is reserved, with 25 seats available to the public on a first-come first-served basis.
The same protocols used at the Supreme Court in Concord during oral argument will be followed during the session in Bow, during which the court will hear two actual Supreme Court cases. After each argument, the lawyers involved take questions from the student audience; following the court session, the justices answer questions from the students about their careers and the work of the court. Prior to the special session, volunteer lawyers visit the invited schools to discuss in advance with teachers and students the legal issues and proceedings involved in the cases that will be heard by the court.
The “On the Road” program was launched in May 2002 at St. Anselm College in Manchester. Since then, sessions have been held at Dover High School, Dartmouth College, Plymouth State University, Keene State College, Nashua North High School and Philips Exeter Academy and Berlin Junior High School. These sessions are the only occasion when the Court convenes outside the Supreme Court building in Concord. Approximately 4,000 high school and college students have participated in the program.
In addition to Bow, the schools participating in the October 25th program are: Concord; Bedford; Merrimack; Hopkinton; Plymouth Regional; Pembroke Academy; Kearsarge Regional; Merrimack Valley; Bishop Brady; John Stark and Parker Academy.
Volunteer lawyers participating in the program this year are: former Supreme Court Associate Justice Charles G. Douglas III; Supreme Court General Counsel Howard Zibel; Merrimack District Court Judge Clifford R. Kinghorn Jr. ; Peter G. Beeson; Doreen F. Connor; Ann Miller Rice; Barbara R. Keshen; Quentin J. Blaine; Richard Y. Uchida; Stephen D. Fuller; Martha VanOot; Jack P. Crisp Jr.; James J. Tenn Jr. and Mary E. Tenn.
The first case to be heard by the justices on October 25 will be State of New Hampshire v. Sean D. Brown in which the defendant is challenging a decision by a trial court judge to hold one trial for six drug related charges that had been brought against Brown, all of which involved separate transactions, on different days.
The question in the second case, State of New Hampshire v. Michael Spinale involves a challenge to the victim’s identification of Spinale as the person who held a knife to his throat and ordered him to turn over cash during a parking lot robbery.
To learn more about the Supreme Court’s On the Road program, and about the two cases to be heard by the court on October 25, go to http://www.courts.state.nh.us/student/ontheroad.htm.
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