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(Sarasota, FL September 10, 2003) - Students in Professor Brooke Butler’s class have an opportunity to see first hand how the legal system works. Working with the public defender in Sarasota County to try and keep defendants off death row offers a perspective that students can’t possibly get from textbooks and lectures alone.

Butler is a litigation consultant who helps other attorneys throughout the county select juries and decide how to best argue that their clients should not be put to death.

The first class was offered at USF to psychology students this summer. One of the surveys students worked with allowed them to get opinions on the death penalty from area residents. “I learned a lot about people’s views on the death penalty,” said Margaret Hanshaw, a student in Butler’s class.

“A lot of people have myths, people believe they spend more money on a life-term (in prison) than they would on death row.”

Death penalty cases are rare in Sarasota, but Butler said there’s enough work to keep her classes busy.

Sarasota attorney Derek Byrd, who handled several local murder cases, said surveys and mock trials help attorneys figure out what people perceive as the strengths and weaknesses of their cases.

“Lawyers are biased for their clients, and they lose objectivity for their clients or their causes sometimes,” Byrd said.

This fall, Butler will conduct a mock trial and hold focus groups to help the Sarasota County public defender.