Learning By Doing Homeschoolers conduct mock trial in old courtroom
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
There’s a murder trial taking place today in the old county courthouse, but the important thing isn’t whether the woman killed her husband.
It’s how well the local homeschooled students present their case against the Fort Wayne homeschoolers presenting theirs.
Julie Josey, Winona Lake director for the mock trial, explained, “We’re homeschoolers and we’re part of a Classical Conversations Community. There are Communities all over the place and at this level, which is Challenge B, eighth-grade, they compete in a mock trial as a compilation of logic, rhetoric, debate, Latin, math and exposition composition. This is the debate section, so they are using all of the skills from rhetoric, logic and debate to put together this case from both sides – the prosecution and the defense.”
She said the Fort Wayne student group has been given the same case material – State of South Carolina v. Barbara Barrett – and is coming up with its own strategies for the case.
“So the group in Fort Wayne has the same materials, but they’ll be coming at it from whatever perspective they choose,” Josey said Wednesday.
The person acting as judge is federal defense attorney Thomas N. O’Malley, Fort Wayne.
Josey said each of the students has a role to play. The Winona Lake group starts as defense in the first half and then switches to prosecution in the second half. The old courtroom has been reserved for the mock trial from 12:30 to 4 p.m. today, though she said she didn’t expect it to take that long.
“There’s been a murder where a woman has killed her husband. ... An officer probably didn’t read her Miranda warnings, and we also have a butler that once was charged with petty larceny,” student Bronson Miller said.
Student Hallie Hertzler said the actual case took place in 1988.
“So I think they’ve been using this thing for like 20 years. This specific case has been around for a long time, for a mock trial,” student Ian Jones said.
Student Caden Josey said the most interesting thing about the case “is that when you’re on defense you don’t necessarily have to prove the defendant completely innocent of everything. You just have to prove they’re innocent of what’s being charged forward, which in this case is murder.”
Jones said, “Or you just have to cast doubt on what they’re being charged for actually happened.”
He said it’s a “battle of stories” and the burden of proof is on the prosecution.
Miller said the two sides in this case are “quite balanced since apparently a lot of the proof is kind of pointing toward Barbara, but then again it’s a bit easier since in defense you just have to cast doubt that maybe she didn’t commit murder or this is manslaughter, not murder. Both sides are mainly the same with difficulty.”
All of them agreed the defendant probably did kill her husband.
Jones said, “I think she probably killed him, but will they call it murder? What the motivation was isn’t entirely clear. You can’t really know because he’s not there, he’s dead, and she’s only going to tell you what she wants to tell you.”
To prepare for today’s mock trial, Miller said, they have a nine-section mock trial notebook which they’ve been reading over for the rules. They’ve also pored over the case materials, including the witness statements and the diagram of the house.
Another thing about the mock trial, Julie Josey said, is that the jury won’t really render a verdict.
“We have five jury members, as well as the judge, who will be awarding points based on criteria that are pre-established. So they will tally up the points from the first and second round, and then the judge has the ability to award points. They can render a verdict if they want to, but that doesn’t necessarily mean both teams want him to,” she said.
Hertzler said it will be really interesting “to see how the process works for a court case. Like how you approach the judge or what are some objections or leading questions and things like that.”
In the first half of the trial as defense, Hertzler is playing Barbara Barrett, Miller plays a psychologist, and Caden Josey, Jones and Isaiah Pullin are attorneys. In the second half as the prosecution, Hertzler is playing a housekeeper, Miller plays a body examiner, Pullin plays Officer Chaney, and Jones and Caden Josey play attorneys.
Four of the five jurors – Nick Deck, Ella Denham, Rachel Grasmick, Claire Wolfenberger and Tim Wright – are local. Bailiff is Hannah Dubois, administrator is Erin Lawrence. and proctors are Melissa Miller and Joy Sondog.
Miller said, “I’d really like to see if we prove if she committed murder or not.”
