Sonoma State’s Mock Trial team has made a name for themselves this season with many victories on their way to regionals. Mock Trial is a public speaking competition, and is a common organization on high school and college campuses. Last weekend, the Sonoma State Mock Trial team won a tournament at University of California, Santa Cruz, while also taking home two individual awards, as well.
During the trials, there are three defense attorneys, three witnesses, and three prosecution attorneys. Universities across the United States are given the same exact case to work on from August through February. This year’s case was about a twelve year old girl with bone disease, who was either believed to have been murdered or placed in a life-threatening situation by her mother.
During the last Mock Trial tournament in Santa Cruz, two of Sonoma State’s team members were given ten out of ten marks and individual awards for their incredible work. At that trial, the defense attorney’s won their round and two members–including fourth year student Breana Archie, and Club Vice President and Team Captain, Erin Charleston–both left the meet with awards for their excellent demonstration as defense witnesses and defense attorneys.
”It was an honor to also take home an individual award for my performance as an attorney. I want Sonoma State’s team to become more recognized as a competitive and established team, and the more individual awards we win, the more we become noticed,” said Charleston.
Within the Mock Trial team, there are two distinct groups of students, one group working as the defense attorney, and the other as the prosecution attorney. In this particular case, the prosecution team’s goal was to convince the judges that the mother of the twelve year old girl should be sent to prison for putting her daughter in a dangerous situation, while the defense team works to find reasonable doubt that she had not murdered her daughter and should not be blamed for her daughter’s death. During the trials, the team and individual members are judged by real judges, who volunteer to assist the trials. They decide the scores for the entire team, and give individual awards to participants based on their performance.
“Judges and attorney’s give feedback based on our execution of the argument and performance, by rating part of the trial 1 out 10…and there isn’t a ruling such as guilty or none guilty,” said third year Mock Trial Vice President, Jennifer Bluestein.
The team’s recent successes were achieved due to the team members being extremely diligent and accurate about what they say. Breana Archie was able to do that exceedingly well, and she was able to take home her own individual win at the last Mock Trial meet. Teams and individuals are judged based on the way they hold themselves, and the accuracy of their argument throughout the trial.
“Public speaking is such a powerful skill and having an organization like Mock Trial builds your confidence and helps you see that you are better than what you say you are,” said fourth year student, Breana Archie.
Archie was awarded first place as a defense witness at their last tournament. She was recognized for her excellent stature and display of emotions as a defense witness.
Although the Mock Trial case studies are not real cases, they still reflect some of the unfair social ramifications and wrongs that have occured in our justice system.
For example, at the UCSC meet, Charleston argued that the mother in the case was too scared to call the cops and report her daughter as missing because she was an African American woman on parole who feared the justice system would not believe her.
“I’m really excited for regionals. They have so many teams and it’s a really good ending point for our team to show off how hard we’ve worked all school year,” said Charleston.
The University’s Mock Trial team will end the semester by attending regionals at Fresno State on Feb. 22 and 23. At this competition, they will be competing against thirty to forty different Mock Trial teams from colleges located all over California.
The Sonoma State Mock Trial team hopes to keep up their award winning streak throughout their season and continue to make Sonoma State proud.
