TV screens big and small filled the courtroom Wednesday as MSU-DCL College of Law students caught a glimpse of new technological gadgets that soon will be coming to campus.
MSU-DCL student Deb Davis-Korpi said she was more that just a little nervous when she stepped up to use the equipment for the first time as her class visited the federal courtroom in Lansing on Thursday evening.
For more than a month, the technology has been housed in Judge David McKeague's courtroom. MSU-DCL has plans to replicate it in the Cliff and Carolyn Haley Moot Courtroom over the next few years.
The technology includes a new Digital Evidence Presentation System, video-conferencing capabilities and a touch-screen presentation format.
The Evidence Presentation System is able to project objects, such as a weapon or a bullet, in 3-D for presentation to a jury.
All of the new technology will aid in the organization of the lawyers and the overall impression of information on a jury, said John Pirich, director for the Geoffrey Fieger Trial Practice Institute at MSU. MSU-DCL is funded separately from the university, so equipment is purchased through the college.
"Essentially, I will be walking in with my entire case on a floppy disk," Davis-Korpi said. "The evidence will be displayed up on a screen, rather than at the document, so the jury is not looking at the document when they should be listening to you."
Pirich said the equipment changes the entire courtroom process.
"A trial that might have taken three days may now take one," he said.
During the night, the group also prepared for a mock trial that will take place in the Moot Courtroom on April 17 as part of the Fieger program.
The institute was established in 2001 after Fieger donated $4 million. He is an alumnus and attended the school when it was located in Detroit. He also is well-known for representing Dr. Jack Kevorkian.
"The purpose of my donation was to help make the school nationally competitive," Fieger said.
Each student who is selected to participate in the institute must take 14 out of 88 credit hours in the program, or the equivalent of one semester of their three-year law degree program.
