Prague Journal

Saturday, October 23, 2004

Back at the Czech Chamber of Lawyers’ conference center, this morning’s U.S.-law session was billed as a mock trial and, frankly, I was very interested to see what a mock trial would look like. The (U.S.) judge who led the session explained the U.S. jury system and the jury selection process. He had assigned two young women law students the roles of prosecutor and defense attorney for the Kobe Bryant case and proceeded to explain how and why you would eliminate potential jurors. There was either a language or cultural barrier here, I think, because the two women asked inappropriate questions – questions relating to evidence that had not yet been provided – despite the fact that the facilitator gave examples of questions and preemptory or causal excusal. He then explained the nature of opening and closing arguments and gave each of the women a chance to provide a closing argument to the audience. Finally, he asked if anyone thought that a jury system would work in the Czech Republic, to which he got no answers, only questions about how people are chosen to be on a jury and whether the system is subject to corruption.
Don Doneske, a former sheriff, talked a bit about the Al Capone trial, followed by Lester Munson, a writer for Sports Illustrated, who talked about sports celebrities and some of the notorious court cases (Ray Caruth, Kobe Bryant, and Barry Bonds). Some of you may be interested to know – or perhaps you already knew – that Kobe Bryant spent more than $12 million on his defense; the prosecution (who allegedly bungled the case totally) spent $400,000. You may also know that George Bush is a baseball fan and has led the crusade against anabolic steroids in U.S. professional sports (hence the case against Barry Bonds).
I doubt whether the Czechs in attendance were interested in the afternoon speakers, who talked about the U.S. Public Health Agencies’ response to bioterrorism, specifically the anthrax “epidemic” in Sept 2001, or facts about aging demographics, dementia and care facilities in the U.S. For me, it was comforting to be told that 80% of people over the age of 85 are “reasonably healthy, pursuing active lives.” Only 20% of people suffer from dementia prior to their death, 50% of those over 85 years old, and heredity’s influence on physical aging is only about 30%. Of course, I may have mixed up the figures due to my own advancing dementia.

posted by JWinn @ 10:17 PM