2nd Session Held 'on the Road'

MORE THAN 450 students have been invited to attend a NH Supreme Court session being held at Dover High School on Wednesday, Oct. 2, the second oral argument session to be held "on the road" this year.

Twelve high schools are sending classes to the special session, which will include two actual cases - the "cameras in the courtroom" case brought by members of the news media regarding electronic media bans from Superior Court proceedings in the Zantop double-homicide case, and a criminal case raising search and seizure issues.

Volunteer attorneys will be visiting the participating high schools in advance of the court session to discuss appellate procedures, court decorum, and to preview the key issues and arguments to be discussed during the oral argument session. Following oral arguments in each of the cases, the attorneys involved will answer questions from the students. Following their conferencing on the two cases to be heard, the justices will also entertain questions-not related to any specific cases-from the students.

Superior Court Associate Justice Bruce Mohl, presiding justice of the Strafford County Superior Court, will make introductory remarks to the audience. As with any oral argument session of the Supreme Court, seats will be reserved for the public.

The high schools sending classes to this event include: Coe-Brown Academy, Dover, Farmington, Merrimack Valley, Oyster River, Phillips Exeter Academy, Portsmouth, Portsmouth Christian, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Somersworth, Spaulding, and Winacunnet.

The cases to be argued are NH v. Jeffery Gray (2001-379); and (2002-0181) Petition of WMUR Channel 9, The Boston Globe, and NH Association of Broadcasters vs. NH, with Kelly Ayotte of the NH Attorney General's office and Richard Guerriero of the NH Public Defender's Office, arguing amici.

The session will follow a similar format to that used in the May 1 session that was held at St. Anselm College in Manchester - an event that garnered positive news coverage from WMUR TV, NH Public Television, NH Public Radio, the Union Leader, the Concord Monitor, the Associated Press and even the Christian Science Monitor.

Justice John T. Broderick, Jr., who only last month returned to work following his recuperation from facial injuries, has disqualified himself from hearing these cases.

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