Essex County Court House

Today we took a 4 hour tour of the Essex County Court House with some friends.  It was an amazing experience.  They really do a great job.

It started with a general overview of the different courts and what they do.  Then we went to an empty courtroom in The Veterans Court House.  The kids got to sit in the Jury Box, the Judge's chair, and the lawyer's tables.  The ombudsman walked them through the court set-up. Where everyone sits and why.  How the jurors are called.  They also got to see the jury room where they wait when they have to leave the courtroom.

Then we went across the hall and sat in on a real trial.  That was the highlight for Mister B.  It was a Robbery trial.  When we came in the Prosecutor was questioning the man who was shot by the defendant.  He was going over the night he was shot.  Submitting photos into evidence and having the witness tell his story.  Then the Defendant's attorney took his turn.  I have to admit, the defendant's attorney had much better courtroom presence. There were sidebars (and unlike TV, you don't get to hear what they say).  At one point the jurors were sent out of the courtroom for 10 minutes while the judge mulled over a legal matter.

When the court adjourned for lunch we had to wait until the jurors were cleared from the floor before we could leave the court.  While we were waiting the judge talked to the kids a bit about the trial procedures and thanked them for coming in and taking an interest in our court system.

After the trial and a short break for lunch we went to the juror room.  They have 3 waiting rooms for potential jurors.  They actually cleared one for us so they could go over the different types of juries and give an overview of the system.  They talked about Grand Juries.  I was unaware that most states have eliminated The Grand Jury.  Grand Jurors serve one day a week for up to 2 years.  They talked about changes to the system because it used to be you served 4 days a week for 6 weeks and people were losing their jobs when called for Jury Duty.  After The Grand Jury talk they moved on to Petit Jurors.  We saw the short film they show potential jurors about what they can expect to happen. Voire Dire and how it works,  what they may experience during the trial, and the types of instructions the judge will give at the end.

Our final stop was the Historic Courthouse.  That is an amazing building.  Construction started in 1902 and was completed in 1906.  The glass domes were donated by Tiffany's.  All the glass was donated by Tiffany's.  The water fountains in each courtroom had 24k gold dolphin spigots. The building eventually fell into disrepair and was closed.  The Bar Association set money aside to restore the building.  It was restored at the cost of 49.5 million dollars in the 1990s.  The artwork is beautiful.    Unfortunately, when the building was closed someone stole the dolphins and the brass doorknobs that had the Essex County Seal on them.  When they renovated the building they did not enable the water fountains again  Turns out the original pipes are iron.  We now know that is not good. 

We were able to go into The Ceremonial Courtroom.  This one shows where the defendant had to stand during the trial (Yep, you Stood trial-and amazingly enough the kids actually remembered this from our Philadelphia trip).  In this courtroom the accused stood and stared at a quote from Job about the wicked not reigning for long.  The jury sat across from the accused staring at a quote from St. Paul (I think) about remembering the good.  We were also able to go into one other courtroom which has an unusual set up.  A semi-circle.  The judge who presided over this courtroom took some time to talk to us about it.  He told us how the lawyers hate it because the jurors are very close to their table and can see what they are looking at/writing.  We also learned that the courtroom is featured in the movie Presumed Innocent with Harrison Ford.

It was a really good day and a great ending to our unit on the court system.