Student organization to compete at regional level

The Mock Trial League gives ASU students a chance to experience the atmosphere of a real court case.   

The MTL was founded last September, but is already preparing for its first competition at a regional tournament against other Texas universities, MTL Founder Tyler Corder said.

The regional tournament will be held in Houston Feb. 3 through 5 and is being hosted by Houston Baptist University, Corder said.

The MTL will have four trials at regionals, MTL member Joshua Bennett said. In two cases the MTL will be the prosecution and in the other two MTL will be the defense.

 "We get judged on our knowledge of the court system and how well we portray our character," Joshua Bennett said.

The trials are standard, Bennett said. The judge will start the case, then each side will have an opening statement. Witnesses will then be called to be examined and cross examined and each side will have a closing statement.

"I definitely want to be able to place in some field," Bennett said. "We want to perform really well and get some experience under our belt so no matter what happens we can go back next year and really know what is going on as far as the competition is concerned."

The top 8 teams will move onto the next level of competition which will be held in Memphis, Tenn., March 23 through 25.

"The Mock Trial League gives undergraduate students an opportunity to learn first-hand about the work of trial attorneys, understand the judicial system, develop critical thinking and public speaking skills, as well as a knowledge of legal practices and procedures," Corder said.

Mock Trial League has brought ASU up  to the intercollegiate academic competition to be competitive among other universities such as the University of Texas at Arlington, University of Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Southern Methodist University, Corder said.

The MTL was started in September of 2011 as part of the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA), Corder said.

"The AMTA was founded back in 1985 and today has universities across the nation involved," Corder said.

MTL members stress that anyone who is interested in mock trial can join.

"We have people who have majors from A to Z," Bennett said. "I don't want people to think that you have to be a Political Science major to join the MTL."

Meetings for MTL will continue through late February, Corder said.

"Fliers will be posted regarding the time and place, and we have weekly meetings during non-competition season," Corder said.