Date:  November 4, 2005                                                   Contact: Laura Kiernan
           Updated link 05/05/06                                                          Communications Director
                                                                                                          (603) 271-2646 x 359

  NEWS ADVISORY

N.H. Supreme Court’s 7 th “On the Road” Special Session to be held November 10 at Phillips Exeter Academy

            CONCORD -   More than 600 students from 12 New Hampshire high schools are expected to attend the 7 th “On the Road” program of the New Hampshire Supreme Court on November 10 th at Phillips Exeter Academy.

            The November 10 court session will be the final time that Senior Associate Justice Joseph P. Nadeau will participate in oral argument, after more than five years on the state’s highest court.   Nadeau, who graduated from Phillips Exeter in 1955, has announced he will retire on December 31, 2005 after 37 years in the state judiciary. He served as presiding justice of the Durham District Court, a part time position, from 1968 to 1981 when he was appointed to the Superior Court bench. He was named Chief Justice of the Superior Court in 1992 and served in that position until March 2000, when was named to the Supreme Court. Justice Nadeau will spend the remainder of his time on the Supreme Court working with the other justices on cases already argued and writing opinions.

            The special session, which provides a unique opportunity for students and community members to see the appellate process up close, will begin at 9:30 a.m. with welcoming remarks from the Academy’s acting principal, Thomas E. Hassan. The moderator for the event, which will be held in the Assembly Hall in the Academy Building on Front Street, is Hampton District Court Judge Francis J. Frasier.   Seating is reserved with 25 seats available to the public on a first-come first-served basis.     

            The same protocols used at the Supreme Court in Concord during oral argument will be followed during the session at Phillips Exeter. After each argument, lawyers in the cases will take questions from the student audience.   Following the court session, the justices will answer questions from the students.

          Prior to the special session, volunteer lawyers visit the invited schools to discuss in advance with teachers and students the legal issues and proceedings involved in the cases that will be heard by the court. The lawyers participating in the project are Alan Cronheim; Thomas Closson; Susan McGinnis; Edward Clancy; Lincoln Soldati; David Wolowitz; Janice Rundles; Gregory Robbins; Ken Murphy; Daniel Harkinson; Kymme Johnson; Patti Blanchette; George Wattendorf; Mark Fernald and Ellen Joseph. New Hampshire Bar President Richard Y. Uchida and Assistant Attorney General Ann Rice will assist with the question and answer portion of the event on November 10.

          The “On the Road” program  was launched in May 2002 at St. Anselm College in Manchester.   Since then, sessions have been held at Dover High School, Dartmouth College, Plymouth State University, Keene State College and Nashua North High School. These sessions are the only occasion when the Court convenes outside the Supreme Court building in Concord. More than 2,000 high school and college students have participated in the program. Information about the Supreme Court's "On the Road" program is available in the Student Center.

          Phillips Exeter Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory school that was founded in 1781. The student body comes from approximately 44 states, the District of Columbia and 29 foreign countries .

        In addition to Phillips Exeter, the high schools participating in the event are Exeter High; Winnacunnet; Portsmouth; St. Thomas Aquinas; Oyster River; Portsmouth Christian Academy; Somersworth; Central; Dover; Wilton-Lyndeborough and Merrimack.

            The first case to be heard by the justices on November 10 will be State of New Hampshire v. Bruce Blomquist in which the defendant was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for attempted murder after he was convicted of attacking a man and his wife in their home. Blomquist, who pleaded insanity and cited a long history of alcohol abuse, argues on appeal that the trial court judge was wrong when he refused to allow the jury in his case to consider convicting him of the less serious charge of first-degree assault.

            The second case to be heard by the justices involves a landlord-tenant dispute. The tenant John Simpson says the landlord, Daniel Young illegally locked him out of his rental property and then failed to pay a fine when ordered to do so by a District Court judge.

            Full summaries of the cases, which were made available by the Court Communications Office to all the participating schools, are available on the Judicial Branch website at http://www.courts.state.nh.us/press/casesummaries20051011.pdf.

######