Trial run: Centre students gain up-close perspective of court system
Students interested in pre-law took a glimpse behind the legal system curtain thanks to Ohio First District Court of Appeals Judge Pierre Bergeron ’96.
It was Bergeron’s first CentreTerm course on “Criminal Justice Reform, 法官, 和大众媒体” that gave students a one-of-a-kind look at the court system.
bwin体育的学生听取了检察官的意见, 辩护律师, 政策制定者, 法学教授, 审判法官, federal and state judges and even got to sit in on a murder trial — real-world opportunities that Bergeron, the Lively Professor of Government and Law at Centre, 希望能让学生们对法律职业有一些感觉.
“In this class, we’ve taken theory and looked at it through a very practical lens,伯杰龙说. “我们真的很投入, trying to wrestle with the difficultly and challenges of problems (in the system), because I think that’s a great way to think about potential solutions.”
One example the class looked at was sentencing: Students first reviewed sentencing data, 差距和量刑过程, then spoke with a federal prosecutor on how they make recommendations to the court. The class also heard from a federal judge who spoke on sentencing and what they struggle with.
“I would say my perceptions have changed,” Leah DeLeon said.
波士顿政治专业的大二学生, DeLeon noted her interest in law school was cemented after taking the course.
“We talked to a defense attorney who had been previously convicted of a crime. I realized that a lot of times it’s easy to lose the human aspect of the system and that there’s always a human on the other side of any report on TV or what you’re reading.”
学生考察传统媒体, 比如电视和报纸, 流行的媒体来源, 比如播客和HBO的《bwin体育》. After seeing how media portrays different challenges in the court, the class combined that information with what they saw in person: The murder trial brought a potential eyewitness to the stand, a topic discussed in class— just how reliable can eyewitness identification be?
跟踪鲍曼, a student in the class of 2026 and native of Stanford, 肯塔基州, said that the course opened his eyes to the inequalities and complexities of the legal system.
“这是一堂密集的课, but I enjoyed it — it encouraged me to go to law school and 希望 help make change.”
他们的期末项目, students were tasked with creating proposals to adjust a specific part of the justice system. 从交警到毒品犯罪, students combined their real-world experiences with what they learned and witnessed in class to create their arguments.
It was significant for students to see how small changes could have “wide-ranging ramifications” to different parts of the legal system, and Bergeron said he was encouraged to see the students’ enthusiasm tackling those challenges.
“因为, 希望, 如果学生有兴趣去法学院, I want them to understand what law school and the legal profession are really like,伯杰龙说. “And so that's part of what I was trying to show them, in addition to why our system operates the way it does.”
