The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Students find former president not guilty
Students acquit Andrew Jackson in mock trial
Former U.S. President Andrew Jackson was found not guilty Dec. 6 of crimes against humanity.
While the former president has been dead for more than 173 years, the question of whether he is to blame for the atrocities during the Trail of Tears was at the center of the Educational Service Center of Lorain County’s annual Gifted Consortium Mock Trial.
The event had more than 350 students from the Amherst, Avon Lake, Firelands, North Ridgeville, Perkins and Wellington school districts argue different cases in courtrooms in Lorain County Common Pleas Court before their peers and practicing attorneys.
Jackson was defended by eighth-graders from Briar Middle School in Sandusky, while the people were represented by eighth-grade students from the North Ridgeville Academic Center.
The jury was made up of students from both schools.
The case was presided over by Magistrate Ben Davey in Lorain County Common Pleas Court Judge Mark A. Betleski’s courtroom.
Mark Millar, an Educational Service Center gifted supervisor, said the students received the background of the cases in August.
“The kids practice, they meet with lawyers and then they take a side of a certain trial,” Millar said.
Practicing lawyers visit the students in class to discuss the trials and prepare them for the mock trial, he said.
The Jackson trial was one of the more difficult ones to take place during the event, and was handled by the North Ridgeville and Sandusky students.
The North Ridgeville students argued Jackson was liable for all of the death and destruction that came as a result of the Treaty of New Echota.
Sandusky students argued he was not to blame because he was not president at the time of the relocation of thousands of Native Americans.
The mock trial gives students a chance to discover if they’re interested in pursuing a career in law, Millar said.
“There’s good leeway that goes on to direct kids down a certain path that they like, and it’s all educational,” he said.
Jackson was acquitted after about 15 minutes of deliberation.
After the verdict was announced, Davey remarked on the difficulty of that particular case.
“I think this is the most complicated case we had, with the most witnesses,” he said. “Everyone went through and stuck to their points and made their cases on both side. So, good job.”
Jackson was acquitted after about 15 minutes of deliberation.