This year’s case is a criminal murder trial, involving three movie studio partners. One is the murder victim and the other two are on trial for his murder. In each trial, one team will argue as the prosecution and the other as the defense.
All mock trial competitions are arranged in the same way. Students create a pretend trial with opening statements, direct and cross examinations, and closing arguments. They are divided into groups of seven, three attorneys, three witnesses, and one timekeeper to set up the trial. Judges then score each team based on the presentation of each part of the case. The team that earns the most points wins the judges’ ballot or score sheet. The teams with the most ballots are the teams that win the competition.
Last month, Howard University won 4th place in the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) 25th annual East Regional Qualifying Competition with a record of six wins, one loss and one tie. Two of Howard’s students, Manti Bean and Dilane Mitchell, also won individual outstanding attorney and witness awards respectively. This win earned Howard a place in the ORCS.
In addition to winning 4th place in their region, HUMTT won trophies in two other competitions this season. Throughout the early part of the school year teams compete in invitational competitions. These are not official AMTA competitions but are hosted by other universities and offer an opportunity for teams to compete with other teams as well as practice for regional and national competition. Howard took fifth in an invitational hosted by the University of Miami in Miami, Fla. and took 2nd in an invitational hosted by Harvard University in Boston, Mass.
Attorney Tianna Johnson, director of HUMTT was so proud of her team. She said that she expected the team to go into competition and win every time. It didn’t surprise her at all that the team was doing so well. She was excited to add all the new trophies to her collection in her office.
In the past, Howard’s team had a quite profound effect on some of their judges. Mr. Clifford J. Gannett judged on of Howard’s rounds, “It was really a lot of fun. I was very impressed with how prepared the team was. I would love to judge again” he said.
Another judge, Scott R. Apple, observed that the fact that the team was competing in one of the huge auditorium courtrooms was a sign of how well they were doing in the competition. He also thought the team was really effective and prepared.
The ORCS was the first time all year the team had lost.
After the winning teams were announced a cloud of melancholy settled over the team. Losing, a distant memory had been brought back to their attention in this competition.
Suddenly, their mock trial season was over.
One of the team members gave his thoughts on why the team had not been successful. “We have to learn to do our best all the time” Michael Roy said. “ We heard about the reputations of some of the teams here and thought that were weren’t going to have to work to beat them.”
Another team member, Victoria Miranda, thought, “Some of us have really been slacking. It doesn’t look good when some of us do the work and others don’t. It also creates bad chemistry among teammates.”
Now that competition is over the team members and their coach can get back to the other activities. “The god part is now we can go back to living our lives,” said Johnson.
True indeed, along with the end of the season comes the end of the endless hours of working on witness character, courtroom decorum, and rules of evidence among other things. No more late nights spent in the Powell building listening to a teammate practice their opening statement or a direct examination for the 80th time. The team members are now free to focus on schoolwork until the end of the academic year.
For now Howard’s team gets to put mock trial out of their minds but never for too long. Next year brings a new case, new team members, and new chances to bring back the win.
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