Do you think Brinker's mock trial was a good idea in A Separate Peace? Why or why not?

In A Separate Peace, the mock-trial
is certainly cruel.  It is cruel to Gene and probably even cruel to Finny.  There are
better ways to handle such things.

At the same time, one
can argue that what Gene did needed to be exposed.  Although there are better ways to
expose him, one could argue, at least the trial results in his being
exposed.

An actual civil or criminal trial would have
worked much better.  Finny would have been surrounded by people who would have prevented
him from panicking and falling down stairs at an actual trial, for instance, and he
would have been somewhat mentally prepared for the
result.

Ironically, what Gene does to cause Finny's
accident is so unexpected and so hideous that none of the adults that are in a position
to question the accident even consider the possibility, as far as we know.  If they had,
Gene and Finny wouldn't have been left at the mercy of Brinker's arrogance, and the
result wouldn't have been as tragic.