BU Mock Trial team will make it to Memphis

Boston University’s mock trial team will bring their own law and order to the court room at this year’s national mock trial competition March 27 through 29 at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn.

Team Co-President Amanda Fretto said the team is ‘thrilled’ to be headed to the national tournament.

‘It’s going to be a great experience,’ Fretto, a College of Arts and Sciences senior, said. ‘Everyone’s a little nervous, but the excitement is just overwhelming.’

The 22-member team has dedicated long hours to practice and memorization every week on top of regular classes.’ There is a weekly three-hour team meeting and each member of the team individually spends an average of six hours a week preparing by studying cases, affidavits, rules of evidence and case law, Fretto said.

‘I think this year we really focused on trying to split up into different groups, putting people who had similar style and work ethic together,’ Karen Alunkal, another co-president, said.

Harvard University, University of Virginia and George Washington University will be BU’s biggest competition, Alunkal and Fretto said.

‘We definitely have to be at the top of our game,’ Alunkal, a CAS senior, said.

The American Mock Trial Association sponsors the competition as a way to develop students’ ‘critical thinking and public speaking skills’ and to augment their ‘knowledge of legal practices and procedures’, according to the AMTA website.’

Susan Ewing, who has worked at the Mock Trial Association office for almost 20 years, said the Mock Trial Association has ‘gotten extremely competitive,’ with 100 to 150 teams advancing from regional competition to the national competition.

Forty-eight teams will be selected in the first round of nationals at Rhodes College to continue on to the second round of the national championship in April, which will be held in Des Moines, Iowa, Ewing said.

‘The [AMTA] board of directors want to make sure we get the best of the best teams at this competition,’ Ewing said.

BU’s team will compete four times at the Memphis finals in March to try to gain that distinction. In order to come out on top, they will have to do well twice as the prosecution and twice as the defense. There are many rules and regulations for the team to remember along with the actual trial they are arguing, for example trials cannot exceed three hours, Ewing said.

A panel of three judges will decide the fate of BU’s team. Two of the judges score the students’ presentations and the final judge makes rulings throughout the trial, Ewing said.

The AMTA Ballot states that itrequires the faux attorneys to make timely objections, think on their feet, have thorough knowledge of legal procedure and and to control witnesses during cross-examinations.’ Witnesses, on the other hand, need to dress the part and be able to respond to any question that is thrown at them.

Fretto said the team is up for the challenge and ready to lay down the law.

‘ ‘I think if we keep preparing the way we’re preparing, we have a great shot,’ Fretto said. ‘And I think we’ll definitely perform the best we ever have, because with the amount of preparation that goes into it, you can’t expect any less.’