HLS' Berkman Center Offers Cyber Impeachment Trial

Those who haven't had their fill of the Clinton impeachment mess now have the chance to participate in the first ever cybernetic trial-by-jury.

Under the auspices of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School (HLS), Climenko Professor of Law Charles J. Ogletree is conducting an on-line seminar called "Jury Trial in Cyberspace."

The course, which does not involve HLS credit, features Web page briefs from President Clinton's defense team and Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr.

Like all Berkman Center offerings, Ogletree's seminar is free. The first three hundred people who sign up at the course's Web site, cyber.harvard.edu/jurytrial, will receive a password that will grant access to on-line discussion boards.

Ogletree said the idea for a virtual trial came out of the May 1998 Harvard International Conference on Internet and Society-an event sponsored by the Berkman Center and co-chaired by Ogletree, whose research interests include the jury system.

Upon enrollment, each participant in the seminar will be assigned a seat on a 15-person jury. In addition to receiving evidentiary material from the Clinton impeachment trial, all enrollees will be instructed on their deliberative duties as virtual jurors.

The trial opened last Friday and will continue through the week of May 1-8, when every juror will be asked to submit an opinion via an on-line "jury room," according to an introductory message posted at the "Jury Trial in Cyberspace" home-page.

Ogletree explained that the jury phase of the seminar will culminate in a public event to be held after Congress makes a judgment about whether to extend the Independent Counsel Act or let it expire.

"We want to make sure that the public's voice will be an integral part of the debate," Ogletree said.

The Internet should become the 20th century's tool for letting people say what they believe without being censored," he said.

"The professor's official role in the seminar is to act as a moderator. Ogletree said this function entails "posing the question to panelists [jurors], making sure they get all the information they need, and analyzing the legal issues to determine if any trends emerge."

Although the on-line trial is restricted to 300 participants, Ogletree said the Independent Counsel event following Congress' decision will involve outreach and an expanded audience.

Ogletree said the fact that Starr himself has testified against extending the Independent Counsel Act raises an "interesting wrinkle" in the debate over whether Starr abused his authority.

This may prove a case of "Monday morning quarterbacking," Ogletree said.

While the number of enrollees was not available at the time of publication, Ogletree said he thinks the seminar will attract "the widest possible range" of participants.

In the aftermath of another famous trial, Ogletree used the print, rather than the virtual, medium to offer his analysis. He authored a chapter of the 1996 book Postmortem: The O.J. Simpson Case titled "Johnnie Cochran and Marcia Clark: Role Models?"