Lizzie Borden Society Forum

This time in a mock trial at Maryville College in Tennessee.

http://www.thedailytimes.com/sited/story/html/184676

Then again they also found Dracula innocent.

i couldn't read it because so many pop-ups came on
and I was clicking them off and lost it, oye, i hate
it when I have to click on so many things, my old
computer doesn't like that! Harry please do like
Kat does, summarize the link for us computer deprived people. I hate to miss anything!

Other famous (or infamous) defendants in their mock trials have included Caligula & Bonnie & Clyde.

nancie, I suggest you install a pop-up blocker. There's plenty of free ones on the web. For this one time, here's a copy of the article:

Borden acquitted by MC mock trial
2005-01-31
by Bonny C. Millard
of The Daily Times Staff

Lizzie Borden was found not guilty of killing her parents -- Andrew and Abby Borden -- again.

Maryville College students reenacted her trial Thursday as part of their January term course, ``History on Trial.''

Students get to play the parts of historical figures in conducting the mock trials, but they also have to do research.

The Bordens were axed to death in their Fall River, Mass., home in August 1892. Lizzie Borden was charged but acquitted of the murders. No one was ever convicted of the crimes.

Professor Nancy Locklin said this is only the second year for the course. During the three-week class, students divide into six teams and present six different historical figures before a ``grand jury.''

The grand jury of students decides which two cases have the most evidence, and those characters are put on trial, Locklin said.

``Dracula'' was tried Friday and was also found not guilty. The fictional Dracula character was based on the real life of Vlad the Impaler of Transylvania.

``The defense did a good job of showing that in this part of the war Vlad's extreme choices kept his territory the most stable and secure that it had been in 100 years,'' Locklin said.

Last year, the students held trials for Caligula, a Roman emperor who killed on whim, and the murdering, bank-robbing team of Bonnie and Clyde.

``I hope they get an appreciation of the law,'' Locklin said.

Sophomores Cori Cain and Eric Metz were the prosecutors in Borden case. Cain said she definitely did not want to be an attorney, but that is Metz's goal for his future career. Metz said he enjoyed acting as the prosecutor.

The students did their own research and then decided what historical figures should be witnesses at the trials.

Then, at the trials, students portrayed different characters. Sophomore Amanda Estes, who testified as Emma Borden, Lizzie's older sister, said her team did a lot of research on the Internet. The class also took a field trip to the University of Tennessee's law library.

``We worked really well together and found a lot of stuff in a short amount of time,'' Estes said.

Sophomore Emily Watson said she learned how interesting the process is of deciding guilt or innocence.

Watson, serving as one of the defense attorneys, said her team thought Lizzie Borden was guilty of the crime. She said that if a more aggressive prosecution had taken place during the original trial, she believes Borden would have been convicted.

Lizzie Borden was well liked in the community, and friends put pressure on the prosecutors, she said.

``They didn't believe back then that a woman would be capable of that,'' Watson said. ``It was an extremely brutal and violent murder.''

Locklin said that she hoped students learned from participating in the trials that nothing is black and white and how difficult it is to understand something based on incomplete or contradictory evidence.

People have to do the best they can to understand things based on the information they have, she said.

``All we do have against her (Lizzie) is circumstantial evidence,'' Locklin said. ``Whether or not she was guilty of the murders, she definitely had a bone to pick with her parents.''

I wonder where they got their internet info?

Thanks Har.
I don't like pop-ups and I don't often go to links because of that.
I suppose my server has a pop-up blocker I can use too so thanks for the reminder!