Michigan State Supreme Court comes to Cass Tech High School

DETROIT (WJBK) - The Michigan Supreme Court took legal arguments on the road Wednesday.
    
More than 500 Detroit students got the chance to see justice in action inside Cass Tech High School.

"Honestly this could sway me to be a lawyer," said Erica Powell, a senior at Cass Tech.

Not necessarily the intent to sway high school students to be lawyers, but it is something special when the Supreme Court of Michigan chooses Cass Tech for a real oral argument.

"I don't think any of us can understand the magnitude of impact this could have on one of the students in the audience," said DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

And the students in the audience saw not only the Supreme Court justices, but many other judges from Wayne County-  But let's get to the case.

"We know the suggestive procedures lead to inaccurate identifications much more often," said Daniel Volchok, the defense attorney in the mock trial.

A victim is shot in the leg in Detroit and the suspect runs away.   A police officer tracks him down and takes a picture of the suspect on his cell phone.  

The officer then shows the picture to the victim in the hospital, who says, "that's him." The issue: is showing a single cell phone picture of a suspect to the victim, too suggestive of guilt?

"If a police officer is showing me this picture, that must mean they got him," said Justice Richard Bernstein.

That's no different than on the scene identification."

 "What Justice Bernstein was saying, was that the victim wasn't in a correct state of mind to be able to identify the suspect," said Mycah Hart, junior student.

If the defendant wins then he will be free because he won in the trial court.

"The problem was the method they got his picture was the problem or why we are here today," said Elayna Treadway, senior.

The Supreme Court will decide the case by a written opinion sometime before the end of the year.