The Courtroom of the 21st Century

Congressionally-directed funding for the Courtroom 21 Project will continue its successful operation and expand its activities, including the creation of an Assistant Director for Research and Terrorist Prosecutions. Project funding will provide the Project with an enhanced understanding of the potential uses of technology to improve the trial of terrorism cases; aid in the establishment of a research partnership with the Fairfax (Virginia) Circuit Court (Courtroom 21 will assist that court with the creation of a high technology-augmented courtroom, thus extending the Courtroom 21 Project's experimental capabilities); create a national technical training and certification program for courtroom technologists; create a technology-augmented jury deliberation room at William & Mary Law School; enhance the McGlothlin Courtroom's (at William and Mary) electronic infrastructure to provide versatile electronic control of multiple separate remote video conferencing systems to provide greater experimental capability in the area of remote testimony and appearances; support a national conference that will address issues inherent to civil discovery of computer originated or stored data; and expand Courtroom 21's national educational outreach via improvement of educational webcast capabilities. nca/ncf