Street Law Students Acquit Mock Trial Defendant
On their last day of school in late May 2008, fifty-five schoolchildren participated in a mock jury trial, held by the American Bar Association Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (ABA/CEELI) with USAID support in Lenkoran, a town of 40,000 people in southern Azerbaijan, just 30 kilometers north of the Iran border.
Street Law attorney, Gunel Jafarova, and two former Street Law participants, now law students, directed the day’s activities. The mock trial was the culmination of a year-long online forum conducted by Street Law attorneys with public schools throughout Azerbaijan. Teachers and school children discussed both in online forums and in classrooms such subjects as “Conflict Resolution,” “Equality,” “Importance of a Right to Education,” and “Understanding the Importance of Courts.” Eighty-nine Lenkoran school children participated throughout the year.
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At a USAID-funded Street Law Program mock trial in Lenkoran, southern Azerbaijan a student prosecutor questions a witness as judges, defense advocates, the jury, and media representatives listen. The mock trial marked the end of a year-long ABA/CEELI online forum with schoolchildren throughout Azerbaijan.
Photo Credit: ABA/CEELI |
At the beginning of the Lenkoran mock trial session, 29 girls and 26 boys representing five schools and two villages were given the “case”: A boy, Mammad, was charged with the assault of a local bully, Babek, who frequently harassed Mammad’s younger brother. The schoolchildren, ranging in age from ten- to fifteen-years-old, chose their roles as members of the jury, witnesses, judges, prosecutors, defense advocates, or members of the media. Each group met in corners of the room or hallway to plan their strategy. Then the trial began. Prosecutors and defense advocates made opening statements to the jury and examined witnesses. The event was a lively scene of young people reading, arguing, discussing, and inquiring.
Finally, as the jury filed in from its deliberations, excited whispers rose from the audience. The judges asked the lead juror to read the verdict. “Defendant, Mammad, acquitted,” she said. A cheer went up in the courtroom. After the verdict was read, the media representative solemnly reported the day’s events. In closing, certificates were awarded to the participants.
USAID initiated support of the ABA/CEELI Street Law Program in Azerbaijan in 2004. An estimated 1,900 schoolchildren have participated in the program’s online forums and mock trials since their introduction in 2006.
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