Courting fun with the mock trial team

Although they’re not real, the trials by the Texas A&M mock trial team are no kangaroo courts either.

Part theater and part law, the mock trial team competes against other universities though as if they were facing off in an actual court of law. Real judges sit on the bench, grading the performance of all the participants from prosecution and defense, to witnesses and defendants.

Ethan Kidwell ‘27, a political science major, said the American Mock Trial Association, which governs competitions in high schools and colleges nationwide, gives each team a 200-page case outline at the beginning of the school year and the competitions are built around that information.

“We read all of it, and we formulate a case based on what we’ve read,” he said. “And we divide into prosecution and defense. And basically, at these tournaments, we’re either the prosecution or the defense. If prosecution, we go against another school’s defense, and if we’re defense, we go against another school’s prosecution.”

Evelyn Chew ’25, the team’s president, said members follow one of two tracks through the season.

“We have the attorney specific, the usual things that you think of when you think of mock trial …. But we also have a witness track,” she said. “These are the people actually playing the characters in the case. We’ll have the plaintiff, the defendant, we’ll have different eyewitnesses or people who investigated the case. … But then you also have to sort of come up with a character or something to make it more exciting, more interesting, more digestible for that three-hour round that you’re in.”

According to team publicist Ashley Benedict ‘26, an economics major, the team consists of about 30 members who are divided into three teams for competition. She said the student-run organization attracts participants from different backgrounds and majors, but noted many of them come with theater and/or speech and debate experience.

“It’s really interesting to see how people can come from all these different backgrounds and all contribute to mock trial,” she said.

Chew said there are a lot of pre-law majors in the group, but many come from STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) backgrounds. She is studying biomedical science.

“Diversity is one of the biggest points of mock trial in terms of the different talents that you see and the different people that you interact with,” said Jakob Zertuche ’27, a political science major. “Me coming from high school and middle school, I had theater experience, I had speech and debate experience, but I find a mock trial sort of is at the intersection of presentation skills of public speaking of acting as kind of an amalgamation of all of those.”

The TAMU mock trial team was established in 1991 and reestablished in 2015. They participate in several weekend tournaments working up to a regional competition at the end of the year. Most of the tournaments are against other Texas schools such as Baylor, Rice, and Houston.

The trials are never the same twice. Coming into a tournament, the teams find out if they are prosecutors or defenders. They find out which defendant(s) are being prosecuted and for what crime. The case this year is from the fictional state of Midlands. The State of Midlands v. B.F. De la Porta and Poe Cameron is a criminal case centering around the heist of artwork from a hotel during a fundraising gala for a children’s hospital. Cameron is alleged to have stolen the artwork and assaulted a guard in the process. The artwork was found in the home of De la Porta, an eccentric millionaire.

A trial could center around either defendant or both. The charges could be related to the theft, conspiracy, or the receiving of stolen goods. It could also be about the assault of the guard.

“We just have to run with it and make whatever case theories we want to think about and whatever witnesses we want to call, whatever evidence we want to choose to bring forward,” said Benedict, who plays an attorney. “We had to write all of our material, practice it, prepare characters in different ways.”

Another wild card in the contest is not knowing what the judges are looking for.

“It’s very subjective,” Chew said. “Sometimes the judge will really like when you play into a character, sometimes they love the entertainment value … and sometimes they really love an aggressive attorney, or they really want that attorney to go really hard on a witness on cross. But sometimes judges are like, ‘you’re badgering the witness; you look really mean.’”

Each member of the team gets to participate in at least five tournaments a year. Since most tournaments are on the road, expenses add up quickly. To offset the costs for the students, the team relies on donations. One of the biggest comes from The Association of Former Students, which gave $3,000 for the 2023-2024 season.

“I’d say the ability to sort of relieve some of that burden off the students is a huge thing to make sure that everyone who wants to participate and wants to compete is able to,” Zertuche said.

Aside from getting an inside look at how the legal system works, the team members build their interpersonal skills and develop long-lasting friendships.

“Were very tight-knit group and make a lot of really close friendships there,” Kidwell said. “You spend a lot of time together, you know, whether it’s after meetings, just writing directs, or during the tournaments, which lasts like three days. I think it’s a good opportunity to form a lot of good connections.”

“I’ve always valued the skill of public speaking, and presenting,” Zertuche said. “I really believe in the power of rhetoric and narration to make a difference and communicate, right. In an era where communication is very much lacking in our political world or social world, I think public speaking and presenting is something that helps facilitate communication, both professionally but also socially.”

Benedict said the connections and friendships made in the organization are deep and lasting.

“Last year was my first time on the team, and I’m still in connection with a lot of those members,” she said. “I’ll run into them on campus, off campus, and it’s like seeing an old friend, you pick up right where you left off … I feel like I know everybody so well and my closest friends are on the mock trial team.”

Chew said the meetings are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30-10 p.m. “But we’ll have like a

late meeting. They go until midnight if we’re being honest,” she said. “And then after the MSC closes, we’ll go to Dollar Slice or something just because we love the conversation. We love being around each other.”

“It’s the perfect balance between hard work and fun. Yeah, work hard and play hard,” Benedict said.