Dionte Berry
Features Editor
dberry11@murraystate.edu

With the ongoing pandemic, many in-person activities have been moved to a virtual format. One of those activities is court. The Murray State mock trial team got a taste of virtual court in their most recent tournament.

The mock trial team participated  in a tournament of around eight schools and competed against four of them on Feb. 27 and Feb. 28. 

Mock trial is an imitation of a court trial. It gives participants a play-by-play of how a court trial moves and operates and participants take on roles such as plaintiff, defendant and attorneys.

For Murray State, mock trial is both a class and a club taught and led by Associate Professor of political science Paul Foote. 

The team is familiar with Zoom, but unlike their fall tournament, they weren’t all in the same setting. Instead, they were all on Zoom from their own separate spaces. 

The mock trial student captain, senior political science major Joshua Sanders, saw that the format change presented challenges in the physicality of the court.

“The major thing about an attorney is how you carry yourself, how you walk, how you use your hands,” Sanders said. “On Zoom, a lot of that just gets thrown away, which is a shame, but it allows us to emphasize the vocal aspects of speaking such as diction, emphasis, speed, tone and passion.”

For this tournament, the mock trial team took on a two-part fictional trial concerning the death of Genesis Petrillo. Petrillo died the day before her wedding from wine that had been poisoned from Peony Estates, which is owned by her future mother-in-law. 

Genesis’s estate is suing Peony Estates for her death. The team worked on the trial in the case of negligence of the winery or battery in the case of whether the poisoning was on purpose. 

The mock trial team started preparing for the trial in September 2020, where they determined how to approach the case and whichstudents will play what roles.

“We get a case packet, and it’s something like 150 pages. While that sounds like a lot, much of it is rules, evidence, affidavits and depositions,” Sanders said. “If something is in the trial, it’s in that packet.”

Beyond the help of Foote and fellow political science professor Drew Seib, the team also had the help of practicing attorneys who are Murray State alumni. 

 “I am thankful for the support of our attorney coaches Adam Holdner and Dominik Mikulcik who are attorneys who have practices, and take time out of their busy schedules to help us learn how to be attorneys,” Sanders said. 

Along with establishing court procedures and obtaining a strong understanding of the case, students had to pick characters they wished to act as in the trial.

Junior pre-law major Madison Hillberry took on the role of expert witness, and with that role came a lengthy preparation process.

“I was a senior health and safety inspector for the Rapid River County Department of Health and Environmental Services,” Hillberry said. “To prepare for the trial, I read over my affidavit over and over again in order to ensure that I was familiar with every aspect of my inspections at Peony Estates.”

Leading up to the tournament everyone would practice together to ensure the knowledge of their roles. 

“We also practiced as a team two to three times a week where one of our attorneys would direct and cross examine me in front of the class, as if it were the real tournament,” Hillberry said. 

She would also talk with those acting as attorneys and even made a Quizlet to quiz her knowledge over her role. 

For her first semester of mock trial, Hillberry was happy with her and her team’s performance.

“I feel that our team did extremely well, especially considering the fact that many of our members had never done this before,” Hillberry said. “It is a whole lot of work, but it is also a whole lot of fun.”

For sophomore political science/pre-law major Case Thomason, this was his second semester on the mock trial team, and he was the attorney on the side of the plaintiff and defense. 

Thomason has found mock trials to be a good way to get a grasp of what real court is by actually acting out the motions and procedures. 

“Mock trial is the prelim to actual trial,” Thomason said. “It teaches you the rules, how to present evidence, how to handle witnesses, how to talk in legal aspects.”

Thomason joined the mock trial team last semester and this was his first time playing an active role. He enjoyed the preparation it gave him.

“Mock trial is great, and I plan on being a part of the team next year and the year after that.” Thomason said. “If anyone is interested in learning more about law, it’s something they should look into.”

For the Zoom tournament, the Murray State mock trial team did well, winning one out of four matches and freshman from Mayfield, Kentucky Travis Conner was awarded as an outstanding student on the side of plaintiff. 

“If people want to get into law school or just learn more about law, mock trials are a great avenue for that,” Sanders said.