Every room in the Koury Business Center was filled over Fall Break weekend for Elon’s 3rd annual Carolina Classic Mock Trial Tournament featuring 24 undergraduate teams from 16 universities, including Duke University, the University of North Carolina, Furman University and two-time national champion University of Virginia.
More than 250 students attended the Oct. 16-18, 2009, competition as participants in trials, where they also served as jury members and judges. All 24 teams advanced to the national tournament last year.
This year marked Elon’s seventh season competing as part of the American Mock Trial Association. The university finished the previous season ranked 142nd out of more than 550 mock trial teams in the national organization.
Elon Mock Trial plans to apply to the association to be a host for the 2010-11 regional and national tournaments.
The mock trial event was a practice round for the spring tournaments. Participating teams will spend the year working on the same case and perfecting their arguments and knowledge of the case. Students must be able to argue both sides and participate as attorneys and witnesses.
This year’s case focuses on the murder trial of Jackie Owens, a fictional movie producer.
“[Mock trial] is a good way to know I’m doing what I like,” said senior Kate Hopkins, a pre-law student. She said most mock trial participants are pre-law students. The organization also attracts music theatre students and students interested in enhancing their public speaking skills.
“We also get to travel a lot,” said junior Daniel Harwell, who participated in mock trial for three years during high school. “There’s a different level of competition in college [mock trial].”
Each team was judged on performance and evaluated by judges on a scale of 1-10. The top five trial teams received trophies and 10 attorneys and 10 witnesses received individual awards based on overall performance.
Duke University, two teams from the University of Virginia, the University of Georgia and Patrick Henry College finished in the top five of the weekend contest.
Elon University received the “Spirit of American Mock Trial Association Award” for the third consecutive year. The award is given to the team that best exemplifies the ideals of honesty, civility and fair play.
“This is my second time coming to Elon, and I think it’s one of the better universities we’ve enjoyed for tournaments,” said Kevin Whitfield, a junior at the University of North Carolina.