Page 34 - Prescription for Crime Drug Testing
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3. Identify critical weaknesses in the reliability of and faulty methods, as these are likely to come up
each fact. in court.
Review the brainstorming results as a class and The remainder of students should split, approxi-
instruct students to connect various facts and evi- mately evenly, into the prosecution and defense
dence to make logical assumptions about the case. teams. The student filling the role of the accused
should work with the defense. Each side should
as- sign their members as either lawyers or
STUDENT ROLES witnesses called. The lawyers are responsible
Allow students to select, or assign, various roles rel- for building their case, developing the questions
ative to the characters. to ask their wit- nesses, and for identifying key
witnesses called by the other side to exploit during
Additional students may serve as the court, filling cross examination. Each side should also identify
the roles of judge, bailiff, and clerk. The judge must critical weaknesses in their own case and prepare
research court proceedings and make determina- counter-arguments for these weaknesses. As there
tions of law, therefore the instructor may wish to are always surprises during trial, each side should
take this role themselves. The bailiff is responsible prepare strategies to deal with the unexpected.
for swearing in witnesses and keeping order in the
court. The Clerk is responsible for recording the The prosecution must provide a reasonable series
trial proceedings. You may wish to omit these roles of events that are consistent with the facts of
or have these students work with the prosecution the case, a motive for the events that occurred,
or defense during the planning stages. With large and prove be- yond a reasonable doubt that
classes, students may also play the role of jury. the accused is guilty. The defense may present
Jurors must attend to the trial proceedings and their own accounting of the facts or undermine
also review the evidence and written documents the prosecution’s case by showing that the
pre- pared by the defense and prosecution to prosecution’s witnesses are unre- liable, that the
come to a conclusion about the case. They must prosecution’s version of the events make no sense
then either meet outside of class and come to a or is inconsistent, or by introducing reasonable
unanimous de- cision, or each write a short paper doubt into the prosecution’s case.
justifying their own decision.
Unlike a real trial, witnesses may help the law-
At least one student should act as an expect yers build their case; their primary duty, however,
witness (the forensic scientist who processed should be to become intimately familiar with their
analyzed the evidence presented); if multiple testimony. Expert witnesses are especially useful
laboratory modules were utilized, several students when dealing with forensic evidence, and each side
should fill this role. This student must be very may wish to call their own or use the other side’s
familiar with the labora- tory procedures used to expert. The students playing the role of expert wit-
process the evidence and should also be aware of ness must become very familiar with that field and
the ways the evidence can be mishandled and the be able to field questions about the accuracy and
precautions taken against evidence contamination limitations of the techniques.
34 THE MYSTERY OF LYLE AND LOUISE
