So yesterday proved to be one of the coolest classroom experiences I’ve ever had in my life. I’ll give you a little background story to set my mood at the beginning of the story. One day prior, I shook my way through my first speech, made a lousy B on my first speech test, and forgot to turn in my Personal Goals Project for approval, which probably earned me a late mark on my final grade.
Anyway, I’m feeling pretty bad about myself so where’s the best place to go? Another class? Oh yeah, right… and to top it off, we’re doing a mock trial, with none other than yours truly acting as the defense attorney for a fictional character from our latest Literature assignment, “The Sheriff’s Children”.
For those who have not read the story, I’ll give you a brief summary. *Spoilers included* A town sheriff is defending an african american prisoner sentenced to death by hanging when an angry mob threatens to break into the station and kill the man themselves. He drives the mob away, but looks away long enough for the prisoner to get a gun and point it to the sheriff’s head. The prisoner then reveals himself to be the sheriff’s abandoned son. He prepares to shoot the sheriff, but is instead shot by the sheriff’s daughter, Polly, who runs in just in time to save her father.
So, “Polly” and I are sitting in the front row, none of us have anything written or planned out, and most of us are also in the dark due to the fact that Law & Order is our only education in courtroom proceedings and etiquette.
So my professor comes prancing into the “courtroom” in her judge’s costume :P, calls order, then throws the back row in contempt for not standing up in time and creating somewhat of a wave effect at the back row when all were asked to “please rise”. Defense and prosecutor were asked to read opening statements, and once again I came to the front of the damn class. I managed to choke out a quote my mother heard from the defense attorney when she served jury duty just two days earlier (convenient, right?) then sat back down, feeling a little better about myself.
The prosecuting attorney was assigned to a good friend of mine, who unluckily has to attend via video feed at a distance site each class like I usually do, but did not this week due to a meeting I had to attend on campus. He was under false assumption that we were holding trial for the prisoner instead of Polly (a fair assumption that I luckily escaped when Polly was called to sit with me). I want to state for the record that he read a beautiful, detailed attack worthy of an A+ … just on the wrong person. XD
We call witnesses and due to this mix-up, I call out the prosecutor for “badgering the witness on heresay evidence”, then we both get stuck when “Polly” sits back down and we are set to call our next witness. Finally I figure, hell why not? None of us know what to do anyway… so I make up a character. Luckily for Polly, a man named “Peeping Tom” was in the area the night of the murder and saw EVERYTHING… naturally. 
But in Tom’s defense… he couldn’t leave the scene due the the fact that the ladder he climbed to peer through the window was kicked out from under him. 
Defense won, but I still have no idea how, since my prosecutor friend killed me in the closing statement (calling a criminal as a witness *giggles*) and the fact that the professor announced we would “hang” Polly if she was found guilty… which I honestly would have liked to see. Bad attorney!
Perhaps I should steer clear of pre-law…
