On Nov. 12 and 13, four members of the moot court team competed and placed at the American Moot Court competition.
Political science major Ethan Rose competed for the first team. He and his teammate, management major Abi Walk, finished in third place overall. The other team, which consisted of political science majors Kennedy Kreger and Jeffrey Ramsey, finished in fourth place.
Rose explained what happened at the competition:
“We competed against other schools in something like a mock trial. Only in moot court, there aren’t witnesses or a jury, it is like a Supreme Court case, so it is only the attorneys and the judges,” he said. “Me and Abi both give a 10-minute argument, during which the judges can ask questions at any time. Then the other school goes. We get scored on clarity of the argument, court room decorum, how well we answer questions, and our knowledge of the cases we use and the record.”
This year’s case dealt with a 15-year-old boy who was convicted of attempted murder and was sentenced to life without parole. Now an adult, he was appealing the case. Rose said he worked with the other team to prepare.
“We spent a lot of time working with Jeff and Kennedy, the other team at the Columbus national, as well working with our professors.”
He believes they did what they could, but he would change some things if he could.
“I think getting an earlier start would have been helpful,” he said. “I also play baseball here at SVSU and so I was playing baseball all summer, so I didn’t get a chance to get into the readings until late August when most other schools and competitors start at the beginning of the summer.”
SVSU’s moot court program has made it to nationals almost every year since it was first created in 20`10.
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