You are going to create a poster OR PowerPoint presentation about a famous American trial. Below are a few
websites that contain possible choices. Your only restrictions are that it has to be an AMERICAN trial and it has to
have taken place no earlier than 1950. The requirements are in the rubric below.
You are to spend this class period researching trials, picking one of interest to you, and then gathering information
on your chosen trial. You may start printing of pictures and information; however, color printers are not
available in the writing lab. You will be presenting your PowerPoint/Poster on Tuesday November 5th and
Wednesday November 6th. If you know of an absence ahead of time, please let me know, otherwise I will choose
people at random on those days. If you are absent or if you are not prepared, you will lose 50 points. You may
email me through November 3rd at noon—after that point, I will not be answering any questions about the
project.
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Do not make this terribly difficult and/or time consuming.
If the trial you picked starts to seem overly-complicated, then choose a different one.
Some people may have been on trial more than once. Focus on ONE trial (preferably the 1st)—but you
may want to mention what happened in the others.
Some of the cases you may find on these sites are not trials; these sites also include cold cases and
mysteries. You must do your poster on a TRIAL For example, Jack the Ripper and The Zodiac Killer are
MYSTERIES…no one was ever tried for those crimes.
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ftrials.htm
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/index.html
http://www.abc-clio.com/product.aspx?id=60619
http://www.cnn.com/JUSTICE/
http://www.justlawlinks.com/TRIALS/index-trials.htm
______________________________________________________________________________
Rubric:
NAME_______________________________________
Who was the defendant and who was the plaintiff, year
A brief synopsis of what the trial was about
About 10-15 sentences
2 pieces of evidence (or 2 witnesses or 1 piece of
evidence and 1 witness) presented in the trial by the defense
2 pieces of evidence (or 2 witnesses or 1 piece of
evidence and 1 witness) presented in the trial by the prosecution
The jury’s verdict AND the sentence
1 citation (1 source) You may use more than 1 source,
but you only need to cite 1.
Creativity/Neatness/Overall Look
Presentation (voice, volume, rate, information, eye contact)
TOTAL
____/10
____/25
____/20
____/20
____/5
____/10
____/10
____/50
____/150