Crosstown rivals met again this weekend as a UCLA team took
first place at UCLA’s annual mock trial invitational,
defeating a University of Southern California team in the
championship round of the tournament.
Miami University of Ohio took second place, and USC placed
third. Another UCLA team placed seventh, and all five competing
UCLA teams had winning records.
Dressed in suits and leather shoes, students tried a fictitious
case involving hockey player Michael Harmon, who is charged with
killing hockey player Tony Sturmanis during a fight at a game.
The first two rounds of the invitational were held Saturday at a
downtown Los Angeles courthouse, and the last two rounds were held
Sunday at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Complete with opening and closing statements, questioning and
objections, each round lasted between two and three hours.
Each round is unique because team captains meet beforehand to
discuss which witnesses to use.
A team acting as the prosecution may want to establish that the
killing was not accidental, said Howard Cheng, a fourth-year USC
student and USC team captain. To prove intent, the team captain
might choose to call a witness who can reveal information about any
possible motives Harmon may have had for killing Sturmanis.
“Depending on your team’s theory, you’re going
to choose witnesses that play up to the theory,” Cheng
said.
Of nine possible witnesses, three are used by each team during a
round, meaning attorneys must work within unique situations when
establishing their cases.
Judges at the invitational included actual judges, lawyers and
mock trial coaches. At the end of each round, judges gave brief
comments to teams about their performances.
Jen McAlpine, a mock trial coach who also works at a
biotechnology firm, suggested to teams after one round that they
should focus on being engaging speakers.
Knowing the rules of evidence is also key, McAlpine said, noting
that understanding how to use objections is “what separates
the 7s from the 9s.”
UCLA’s invitational serves as a stepping stone for teams
that will compete in mock trial regionals in mid-February.
Jamie Shookman, a second-year University of Wisconsin-Madison
student, said the invitational gave her team a chance to see how
west coast mock trial programs operate. Attorneys introduce
themselves and witnesses to judges, Shookman said, which is
something teams in her region don’t usually do.
Shookman said her team drove to Los Angeles from Wisconsin
““ a trip that took four days.
“Our (experience) hasn’t gone as well ““
we’re a little bit fatigued,” she said.
Despite being tired, students on the Wisconsin team said they
enjoyed the weekend ““ particularly, the weather.