Starting in Staceyville on Tuesday, Maine Supreme Judicial Court justices will hear appeals cases at three Maine high schools next week.
Oral arguments begin at 9 a.m. Oct. 6, at Katahdin Middle/High School in Stacyville. The three cases include appeals of a murder conviction and 50-year sentence, a revocation of bail based on allegedly unreliable testimony and a request for unredacted public documents.
The practice of appellate law is rarely seen on television or in the movies. The court created the program 21 years ago to give students an opportunity to see how the appeals court functions.
The court will hear a total of nine appellate cases. Justices will also hear arguments at Bath’s Morse High School on Wednesday and at Kennebunk High School on Thursday.
The court has visited about 40 schools to hold actual appellate hearings. Last year, they went to Northern Kennebec Valley High School in Bingham, Oak Hill High School in Wales and Falmouth High School.
These are real oral arguments in real appeals before the court. All justices will be there, although a justice may be recused in a particular case and therefore would not participate in the argument on that case, said Matthew Pollack, the court’s executive clerk.
Each school’s gym, cafeteria or auditorium is transformed into a courtroom so students can observe the appellate process. Students receive copies of the briefs in advance and, after each argument, the lawyers will answer questions from students.
“We hope that providing real-time exposure to the third branch of government supplements the students’ civics education and exposes Maine learners to the concept of justice, ” Chief Justice Valerie Stanfill said in a Tuesday release.
Creating a courtroom environment in a high school takes great effort on the part of the school administration and staff and we appreciate their extensive efforts, she said.
The three opening day cases in Stacyville are slated for 9 a.m., 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.
In the first case, State of Maine v. Chad T. McDougal, the appellant wants justices to vacate the lower court’s decision to revoke his probation based on what he alleges is unreliable hearsay testimony and written statements to police.
McDougal denies allegations that he punched the woman in the eye and he is appealing the decision because in each retelling of the alleged assault to police, 911 dispatchers and medical staff, the alleged victim changed her story.
In the second case, John D. Clopper v. Maine Public Employees Retirement System, Clopper alleges that when he filed Freedom of Access Act requests for public records from the Maine Public Employees Retirement System, he was given nearly 4,000 pages of blacked-out documents with most of the text redacted.
He asks that the documents be released without redactions or with redactions that only obscure what’s protected from disclosure by statute.
In the final opening day case, Lorenze Labonte wants a new trial based on what he said are multiple trial court errors.
Last year Labonte was found guilty of murder by a jury in York Superior Court and sentenced to 50 years in the Maine state prison. Labonte alleges that the trial court erred in its authentication of evidence: admission of calls from jail; leading questions in direct examination; authentication of cell phone records; and sufficiency of evidence.
When the cases are decided, the schools will receive a link to the decisions to share with the students.
The schedule for all the high school hearings and the appellant’s briefs are available on the Supreme Judicial Court’s schedule page. The hearings will also be live streamed.
