A new semester means another collaboration between the LEAP Center and the Freshman Leadership Program. And this year, the two offices decided to do a Simulated Voir Dire, giving them a broad overview of the jury selection process. And so it was that Associate Dean Lindsay Lauher, FLP Program Assistant Dante Tamez, Professor Mike Yawn, and the LEAP Center’s Sarah-Hope Carter came to be pretend lawyers for a day, along with 30 promising leaders who participate in the Freshman Leadership Program.
The students were provided with creative biographies, requiring them to take on the perspectives of 53 year-old plumbers, 34 year-old teachers, previously convicted drug dealers, and the like. Collectively, they constituted the jury pool, brought together to consider charges of drunk driving with an associated injury.
Professor Yawn stepped them through process of checking in, the background interviews they would do, the research attorneys might undertake, and the legitimate reasons for which a potential juror might be excused.
Yawn took the students through the question-and-answer process that potential jurors go through to determine their suitability, as well as the difference between a “strike for cause” and a peremptory strike.
Beyond the strict voir dire process, students also learned a little about criminal procedure, as well as upcoming events hosted by the LEAP Center. The students, befitting future leaders, were highly engaged, with McKenzie Menefee proving particularly knowledgeable. In fact, Menefee and Lilly Temple-Dozier ended up joining the Pre-Law Society!
It was an enjoyable and educational afternoon, another rewarding cohort of the Freshman Leadership Program.
Center for Law, Engagement, and Politics 