While most students are still contemplating their Halloween costumes, the members of Case Western Reserve University’s Undergraduate Mock Trial Team already know what they’ll be: lawyers and witnesses.
This Halloween weekend, CWRU Mock Trial is gearing up to host its 10th annual Spartan Throwdown invitational tournament Oct. 28–29 at the Cleveland Justice Center.
The two tournament directors—junior political science and economics major, Sarah Thomas, and sophomore accounting and international studies major, Emily Ahlstrom—have been working since April to organize this weekend-long competition, recruiting attorneys, judges and law students to oversee mock trials put on by competitors from universities nationally.
This year will feature the most competitive field in the tournament’s history, with mock trial teams from schools such as University of Chicago, Penn State, University of Cincinnati, Indiana University and University of Michigan. More than half of the field is composed of teams who made it to the national tournament last year.
Each team will compete in four rounds total, presenting their prosecution side of the case and defense two times each. This year’s case, which is produced every year by the American Mock Trial Associations, is called State v. Hendricks, a criminal case involving an attempted murder, a love triangle and memory-altering drug use.
CWRU’s Mock Trial Team will have three teams compete: Team $avage, Team 2 and Team Reputation. Historically, the team has done well on its home turf during the Spartan Throwdown.
Anyone interested in learning more about mock trial or potentially coming to watch one of the rounds can reach out to either tournament director at esa29@case.edu and sat67@case.edu, or reach out to the organization president Sanjna Arvind at sxa573@case.edu.