Nevada Supreme Court Chief Justice James Hardesty took the bench Friday to hear oral arguments in the case of a grisly 2006 murder.

His audience on Friday was an auditorium full of Sparks High School Students.

In a traveling court, Hardesty and Justices Michael A. Cherry and Nancy M. Saitta stepped onto the stage in the Sparks High School auditorium to convene their session.

“I hope they got to see first-hand how the judicial system works,” Sparks High School American government teacher David Harper said.

As the deep-voiced command “all rise” echoed through the auditorium, a legion of Sparks seniors clattered to their feet and Hardesty, Cherry and Saitta walked in.

The robed justices took their seats in folding chairs adorned with the Sparks High logo behind a long, crimson cloth-laden table. Near the edge of the stage, lawyers for the prosecution and respondent propped their leather briefcases against their own folding tables and took their seats, facing the row of justices.

After the Pledge of Allegiance was recited, court at Sparks High School was in session.

The case involved the 2006 death of Douglas County resident Rob Bodden, who was shot twice in the back of the head before being wrapped in a blanket, plastic and duct tape. His body was found in the desert on Sept. 11, 2006.

His wife, Karen Bodden, was found guilty of his first-degree murder in January 2008 and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Bodden filed a motion for a new trial in district court, claiming her home was searched through a faulty search warrant and evidence obtained should have been suppressed. She also contended that testimony involving DNA should not have been allowed. The district court denied her motion. Bodden is appealing both her conviction and the denial of her motion for new trial.

While the Nevada Supreme Court has heard arguments outside of the courtroom in Carson City in the past, the Friday morning session marked the first time the justices had convened in Sparks.

“Many Nevadans have never had a chance to observe Supreme Court oral arguments,” Cherry said. “We believe that holding court sessions across Nevada offers an interesting educational opportunity for our students and citizens, and promotes a better understanding of the role of the judicial branch of our government.”

After each lawyer took the floor and argued for and against Bodden’s case, the mode of the court turned to an informal question-and-answer session.

“Why are there not more women on the Supreme Court?” one student asked from her seat in the audience.

In addition to Saitta, one other woman sits on the Nevada Supreme Court, Justice Kristina Pickering. Sitta is the fourth woman to become a Nevada Supreme Court Justice and Pickering is the fifth.

“Your ticket to success is just that you put one foot in front of the other,” Saitta told the students.

Another student fielded a question on inner conflict to the appellant lawyer.

“How can you represent someone you know is guilty?” the student asked.

Erik Johnson, Bodden’s appointed attorney, was happy to respond.

“With all of the courts and police lined up against you, we say that we will give you one person on your side,” Johnson said. “Anybody has a right to that. It is the ones who are not guilty and who are punished that bother me more.”

Saitta chimed in with a statement on her passion for court-upheld rights.

“These are the highly held rights that you all have that were provided to you by our forefathers through the Constitution — the right to be free of searches in our homes … the right to not be deprived of your liberties without adequate representation, the right to have your case heard before a jury of your peers. These are the single most important rights that you have,” Sitta said.

The morning court session continued into the late morning as the panel of three justices heard arguments in the case of International Gaming Technologies vs. Wild Game, doing business as the Siena Hotel Casino.

Over the years, the Nevada Supreme Court has also presided over oral arguments in Elko, Ely, Winnemucca, Tonopah and Virginia City. The Supreme Court’s Northern Panel also conducted oral arguments at the National Judicial College in Reno. The Southern Panel of the Supreme Court holds annual oral arguments at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

While the Nevada Supreme Court is composed of seven members, most cases are decided by three-justice panels to save time, according to the court’s public information officer Bill Gang. Gang added that the Nevada Supreme Court is one of the busiest appellate courts in the nation in part because Nevada has no intermediate appellate court.

The full Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the most important cases and all death penalty cases.