Amicus Summer Interns Files-Nicole

June 7th, 2010
Court Case at Old Bailey for Manslaughter

Lauren and I went to the Old Bailey to sit in on trials. We entered the court for a manslaughter case in which the defendant killed a biker with his car. We saw the prosecution's questioning of the defendant. We sat behind the witness stand and had a clear view of the lawyers and judge. We were facing the jury and were able to see their reactions to the defendant. The prosecution concentrated a lot on setting up a record of the defendant's various run-ins with the police and history of lying to the police. The barrister constantly repeated questions in order to catch the defendant in lies. They had a great deal of evidence in huge binders, including police interviews with defendant from current and past cases, pictures of car accident, CCTV footage of the defendant after the accident. The jury was supplied with a binder of evidence to share with the person next to them. The defense only had one objection. There was not much interaction with the judge; he was mostly just observing the case. Overall, it was an extremely interesting and exciting case to watch.