On Oct. 18, the Dillard University mock trial team headed to Ole Miss to argue the case of Shannon Shahid v. Taylor Hopson.
Dillard’s mock trial team is nationally ranked and holds a high reputation within the American Mock Trial Association. Their first tournament this year was hosted in Oxford, MS where they started the season off strong. Three team members, Jaylen Moore, Leonard Brown, and Semira Morgan won outstanding attorney trophies and in addition, Moore won an outstanding witness trophy.
Morgan, a junior here at Dillard University is the Director of Education for the Mock Trial team. She has three years of experience in mock trial competitions.
“It was a great way to kick off the season as well as competing with new individuals,” said Morgan when asked about her first competition back and her outstanding attorney trophy. She also speaks about her strong emotions about her trophy, “as a whole, we dealt with obstacles. And as a team, we are always judged harsher than our opponents, but I was proud to have been a top attorney at the competition!”
So, what is mock trial? Mock Trial is a competitive pre-law activity that simulates a real court trial. Students who participate in this activity are educated on the legal system and courtroom procedures, but not all students who participate are interested in law. Teams consist of attorneys, who create case theories and try the case in court, and witnesses, who are other students, play the numerous characters within the case. Some students who play the roles of witnesses major in the arts, and use these roles to build their theater performance.
Witnesses can either make or break a case because you need to tell your theory through them. The witness can talk about what they saw or heard about the crime and usually, students like to give their witness a distinct and memorable character. The attorney’s role mainly presents the legal arguments that will make for a compelling case to persuade the judge and jury.
Dillard is a member of the American Mock Trial Association, which creates fictional cases each year that can either be civil or criminal. This year, the case is a civil suit between two siblings who want their father’s inheritance to themselves, but, that’s not the most controversial part of this case; one of the siblings accuses the other of having a hand in their father’s death. Dillard’s mock trial team had to prepare a case theory that would best represent the plaintiff or defendant in court.
Mock trial, though, is not just drama and role-playing. Attorneys must learn the rules of evidence, case law, and pre-trial matters that surround litigation. Rules of evidence and case law are important specifically when it comes to learning how to object and to support your case theory.
In addition to preparing a case, attorneys have to construct either an opening or closing statement for the court to understand their theory. Both witnesses and attorneys also have to tell a story through their direct and cross-examinations. Direct examinations are the questioning of a witness by the party that asked them to be there, and respectively cross-examinations are the questioning of a witness by the opposing party.
All in all, these students put forth a lot of time to construct their arguments and create their characters’ persona while also staying on top of their classes. The Dillard University mock trial team will be competing once again on Nov. 9th in Nashville, TN.
