Illinois State University students enrolled in legal studies courses emptied their pockets and walked through a metal detector as they entered their classroom. They shuffled past armed law enforcement as they took their seats in a room that had been swept by a police K-9 not long before.

The students were never in danger, but the environment conveyed the seriousness of their lesson plan for the day.

Illinois State hosted the Fourth Judicial District Illinois Appellate Court on March 25 with oral arguments presented for two cases involving murders that took place in McLean County. Hosting the proceedings meant turning a section of the Bone Student Center’s Prairie Room into a courtroom. A couple dozen Illinois State students filled two rows of reserved seats inside the standing room only courtroom.

More than 200 people in attendance heard arguments about states of review, admissibility of new evidence, requests for forensic testing—and a named alternate suspect in one hearing—for murders that occurred in 1991 and 1998, respectively.

“I feel really lucky as an ISU student to be able to come here and have this opportunity,” said Isabel Kusiolek, a sophomore from Huntley double majoring in legal studies and Spanish. “It’s so beneficial for students in my program of legal studies and criminal justice to have this opportunity that students at other universities might not have.”

Sam McCleary, a junior from Geneseo, was inside a courtroom for the first time in his life. As he watched, the double major in political science and legal studies envisioned himself taking part in legal proceedings one day after he earns a degree from Illinois State.

“Seeing these real people who, in a few years, I will have to interact with, was really interesting,” McCleary said. “It was really interesting to see it all.”

The oral arguments marked the third consecutive year that Illinois State has hosted the Fourth Judicial District Illinois Appellate Court, though the court first came to Illinois State more than a decade ago thanks to emeritus faculty member Bob Bradley and Justice James Knecht ’68, who both saw educational value in holding court hearings on a university campus.

When Professor and Director of Legal Studies Tom McClure was acting chair of the Department of Politics and Government a few years ago, he saw a need for more live programming in the department and wondered if he could get the court to return to campus. He had attended the first proceedings organized by Bradley and Knecht years ago. McClure pulled it off in 2023 when the court returned to Illinois State for what were some of the first in-person hearings held in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hosting court proceedings on college campuses isn’t new or all that uncommon, but the practice offers an uncommon experience for legal studies students when courts come to their campus. McClure called it a “rare opportunity.”

“The whole purpose of it is education, but we take it to a new level at Illinois State,” McClure said. “We have students in our legal research and writing classes who will have assignments, and they’ll be more engaged because it relates to what they’re working on in class.”

Kusiolek’s Legal Research II class held a mock trial in advance of the oral arguments on behalf of Barton McNeil, convicted of murdering his 3-year-old daughter in 1998. Neither McNeil nor Jamie Snow—the appellant in the other case—were present at the hearings. McNeil was represented by the Illinois Innocence Project and the Exoneration Project, and his attorney argued for reversal of a previous court ruling denying new evidence.

It all rang familiar to Kusiolek, who had studied the case in her legal studies class. 

“We knew they were going to be talking about newly discovered evidence, and it was interesting to see how they were doing that, how they were applying it, and what their arguments were,” Kusiolek said.

McCleary had studied the cases, too. He’ll have an assignment in his class related to the hearings before the end of the semester. He said he felt “conflicted” after hearing the oral arguments, in which Snow’s attorney from the Exoneration Project sought reversal of a prior ruling that denied forensic testing of fingerprints and DNA from the scene of a murder at a Bloomington gas station on Easter Sunday in 1991.

“I see an argument in principle for the finality of rulings in criminal cases, but I thought the attorneys made some good arguments in their briefs and in oral arguments today about modern investigations and things that would happen today that didn’t happen then,” McCleary said.

The court likely won’t rule on the oral arguments presented for a month or two, but the hearings were being dissected in group discussions—some including students—outside the courtroom in nearby dining facilities after the proceedings. An impromptu press conference was held in a Bone Student Center hallway, and students were among those gathered around.

Ater the proceedings had concluded, Illinois State legal studies students had one more educational opportunity as they were invited to a luncheon with attorneys and court staff. McClure drew up a seating chart that ensured every student sat at a table with a judge. 

Kusiolek admitted she was nervous beforehand but also said she was looking forward to asking questions. 

“I want to ask them how they form their questions and responses so quickly and how they prepare for that,” she said. “I want to ask them how they think on their feet so quickly, but also about their histories and how they came to their positions—how they became an attorney or an appellate court justice.

“I’m just curious.”