Legal Walk and Supreme Court Visit

Tuesday morning we participated in a London Legal walk. We got to walk around the part of London that is the place where solicitors and barristers are trained and become members of an Inn of Court. Every person that wants to become a solicitor here has to go through three years of school and become a member of an Inn of Court. Here, they have to come to the Inn of Court 12 times in the fourth year. This year is kind of like what we would call an internship where you put your knowledge into your work and do some hands on practicals. There are four Inns of Courts: Grays Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple Inn and Middle Temple Inn.

We also got to sit in some cases at the Royal Courts of Appeal. This was really interesting because I have never gotten to sit in and listen to a case at the appeals level. Here, all courts allow the public to sit in and listen, even the Supreme Court. Back in the United States the public is not allowed in the Supreme Court so I found this really interesting. The tour guide at the Supreme Court we visited was astonished that the public is not allowed at our Supreme Court back in the States. We also got to act like justices and he gave us facts on a couple cases and we voiced our opinions. This activity was really quite fun.

After our school activities were done we went to the Wellcome Collection and looked at the Forensic Exhibit they had. This exhibit was really neat and I found out just how much of the things there I have learned while taking Criminal Justices Classes at Chadron State College. The exhibit was split into five rooms. The first room set the scene by explaining what evidence is and how to collect maintain it. The second room was about the morgue and how they do autopsies. There was even a recording of an autopsy you could listen to and was quite graphic. The third room held a bunch of documents explaining the role of history in forensics. Amongst these documents was a letter from Edmond Locard to August Vollmer. It was even signed and had a golden seal! I was so excited about this! The fourth room talked about the use of reconstruction of skulls to help solve crimes. There was even a refrigerator simulator that was really neat and extremely cold! The final room had stories about wrongful convictions. Of course the Criminal Justice System is not perfect and does make mistakes. One guy served 18 years in prison before being exonerated from a wrongful conviction by the Innocence Project. This exhibit was one of my favorite activities I have done while being in London!