Troy University’s mock trial team brought home two awards from the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) Tallahassee Regional competition held Feb. 15-16.
The AMTA, the governing body of intercollegiate mock trials in the United States, hosts regional and national tournaments for mock trial teams across the country. Over 7,000 undergraduate students compete in these events each year.
In the competitions, teams are provided a hypothetical trial case and team members are assigned to the roles of attorneys and witnesses. Attorneys are responsible for preparing direct examination questions for their side’s witnesses, cross examinations for the opposition side’s witnesses and opening and closing statements. Witnesses are responsible for learning their characters’ affidavits, relevant exhibits and answering direct and cross examination questions.
This year’s case featured a “complicated civil matter” involving a luxurious Australian train trip, a murder on the train and a legal dispute over the will between the murdered man’s two children.
Dr. Adam Rutkowski, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and one of the team’s coaches, said the students meet weekly to practice in a group setting, but also spend a lot of time preparing on their own.
“Our students dedicate an incredible amount of time and effort to mastering the case, refining their arguments and honing their courtroom skills,” he said. “Through this, students also learn valuable critical thinking and public speaking skills.”
Hosted by Florida State University’s College of Law, TROY competed against 25 other teams from Florida, Alabama and South Carolina. The competition started with an opening ceremony, followed by four, three-hour rounds of trials over two days. Judges included law school faculty, local attorneys and judges and law students.
TROY students divided into two teams—the Cardinal Team: Camille Bowers, Michael Brantley, Andrew Cerf, Camden Cummings, Payton Harrell, Caitlyn Harris, Holyn Hedrick and Ciera Robinson; and the Platinum Team: Kaylin Cichocki, Julian Coleman, Nicholas Defore, Luke Gaylor, Peyton Moore, Dillan Schoggins, Grace Shellhouse, Evann Tessmann, Holly Winchester and Ada Zeigler. The team is also coached by Dr. Lisa Harden, a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, Criminology, and Sociology.
Michael Brantley and Grace Shellhouse both won an Outstanding Witness Award.
“This recognition is a testament to their hard work and dedication,” Harden said. “Both Michael and Grace delivered outstanding performances that impressed the judges.”
Of the 26 schools competing, only six advanced to the next round of competition.
“While TROY did not advance, we did have success throughout the weekend,” Rutkowski said. “TROY Platinum defeated State College of Florida, and TROY Cardinal also won against Flagler College in the third rounds of competition. This is a significant improvement over our competition season last year, which was our first year.”
While the team is associated with an academic trial procedures class held in the fall, students of all degree programs can take the class and are eligible to join the team. An interest meeting for next year’s team will be announced later this spring.
