Date: April 26, 2005                                          Contact: Laura Kiernan
         Updated 4/27/05                                                   Communications Director
                                                                                       (603) 271-2646 x 359

NEWS ADVISORY

Supreme Court “On the Road” Special Session May 5, 2005  
 at Nashua High School North

          CONCORD -  The New Hampshire Supreme Court continues its “On the Road” program with a special session on May 5, 2005 at Nashua High School North. More than 700 students from 11 area high schools are scheduled to attend the event, which is the largest held since this highly successful outreach program was initiated three years ago.

The 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 Nashua North Principal R. Patrick Corbin. The moderator for the event is Nashua District Court Judge Thomas E. Bamberger. Seating is reserved with 25 seats available to the public on a first-come first-served basis. the high school is located at 10 Chuck Druding Drive in Nashua.   

          During the sessions, the justices will hear oral arguments in two actual cases now pending before the Supreme Court.  The same protocols used at the Supreme Court in Concord during oral argument will be followed during the session at Nashua North. 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 about the work of the Supreme Court and the judicial branch. 

          The “On the Road” program  was launched in May 2002 at St. Anselm College in Manchester.  Since then, sessions have been held at Dartmouth College, Dover High School, Plymouth State University, and Keene State College. 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.

In addition to Nashua High School North, the high schools participating in the event are Nashua South; Salem; Alvirne; Milford; Calvary Christian; Campbell; Souhegan; Bishop Guertin; Hollis-Brookline and ConVal. A group of home schooled students will also attend the event.

          Prior to the special session, volunteer lawyers visit the invited schools, and the home schooled students, 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 Joseph Laplante, Steven L. Maynard, Kathleen Brown, Michael D. Hatem, Robert M. Parodi, Gordon A. Rehnborg Jr, Will Delker, Ann M. Rice, John V. Dwyer Jr., Kris E. Durmer, Andrew A. Prolman, Stephen Fuller, Peter E. Hutchins, Andrea Amodeo-Vickery, Risa Evans and Ann Larney. Merrimack District Court Judge Clifford R. Kinghorn Jr. and Attorney General Kelly A. Ayotte also helped prepare students for the event. New Hampshire Bar President James D. Gleason, Attorney General Ayotte, and incoming Bar president Richard Y. Uchida will assist with the question and answer portion of the event on May 5. 

          The first case to be heard by the Court on May 5 is State of New Hampshire v. Abbott Place in which the defendant, who was found guilty by a trial court of simple assault, is asking the Supreme Court for a new trial to include a jury instruction on “ mutual combat simple assault.”  Following an argument in the kitchen of their home, the defendant claims that his wife implicitly agreed to engage in an altercation with him after she hit him first. The defendant argues that he is entitled to a new trial because the jury was improperly instructed and denied the opportunity to decide if the defendant’s act was an assault or an act of self-defense.  The state argued against the defendant’s request for a new trial because there was no evidence showing the wife consented to a fight and no basis for providing the “mutual combat simple assault” jury instruction. 

          In the second case, State v. Alfred Gero, the defendant, who was convicted of criminal threatening argues that his firearms and ammunition should not be destroyed by an order of the court because they are not contraband and were not used in the commission of that crime. The State believes that the court acted properly and that it is in the public interest to destroy the weapons because of the circumstances of the case. 

          Full summaries of the cases, which were made available to all the participating schools, are available on the Judicial Branch website at www.courts.state.nh.us/press/casesummaries20050505.pdf.

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