HUMANITIES
YEAR 10 COMMERCE MOCK COURT EXCURSION
On Tuesday 8 October, our commerce class had the chance to go on an excursion. We took the train to the Old Melbourne Gaol on Russell Street, a former jail that is currently a museum and Victoria’s oldest jail. The old City Police Watch House, City Court buildings, and Street Police Headquarters surrounded that area.
We had the opportunity to conduct a mock court and gain insight and understanding into a plea hearing in the Victorian court system. We specifically went into the Old Magistrates’ Court, which is on the site of the original Supreme Court of Victoria. This is where Ned Kelly was sentenced to death by Judge Redmund Barry in 1880.
Our class acted out Queen v Kim Tran’s culpable driving case. In this case, Kim Tran drove recklessly, and it resulted in his friend’s death. I was Mrs Francine Danks, the judge, and my other classmates took on the roles of a defendant, prosecuting counsel, defending counsel, etc. Everyone enjoyed acting out the written scripts and watching videos along with detailed explanations about the case. We learned that there was no jury in this case as it has already been proved that the defendant is guilty and as it is a plea hearing. The case was based on a true story, and many similar cases occur more than we think in Victoria.
After the mock court, the staff who guided us through the case gave us an overview of how the punishment for Kim Tran is to be decided. There are moral debates as the defendant’s intention wasn’t to murder his friend; he will live with guilt, he will be exposed to more crimes in an adult prison, he will struggle in society because of his conviction after his sentence, but the deceased’s family lost a loved one, and if he is not given enough punishment, then a case like that might happen again.
In the end, both sides’ trauma from this case, previous criminal records, age, potential rehabilitation, and whether he is remorseful play a big role in the process of deciding the right punishment.
Yeri Soung, Year 10