2018 Season of Mock Trial Begins with Release of New Case
On September 20th, the Ohio Center for Law Related Education released the case for the 2018 high school mock trial season.
Based on the popular podcast Serial, the case, State of Buckeye v. Adam Smith, follows convicted murderer Adam Smith’s pursuit of a retrial, arguing that his original legal counsel did not effectively defend him. This case, however, is not a retrial of the murder Hayley Leigh, the original victim. Instead, Smith’s team will argue that his motion for a retrial should be accepted based on the errors made by his attorney under the sixth amendment.
The defense bears the burden to prove that there is reasonable probability that but for the defense counsel’s errors the result of the trial would have been different. They will call two of three witnesses to meet this burden. Avery Johnson, an investigative journalist conducting the podcast, Addison Waranowitz, an expert on radio frequencies, and Randy Johnson, a teacher at Smith’s high school, who will all argue in favor of the defense.
The prosecution will also call two of three witnesses: Billie Stoneridge, a police detective assigned to the murder, Taylor Lewis, an expert on forensic analysis, and Morgan Reynolds, Smith’s original co-defendant, who will all attempt to disprove any reasonable doubt of Smith’s role in the murder.
Kevin Hillery, who has served as the program advisor at Archbishop Hoban for 26 years, anticipates much dialogue on this year’s case.
“I am very interested in this year’s case because it is drawn from the very popular Serial podcast,” Hillery said. “The legal issue for us to consider is not whether the person was guilty of a murder, but whether the quality of their lawyer’s work on the case prevented them from getting a fair trial.What I love about this case is for the first time, it is based on real life circumstances, not a fictional case version.”
In previous years, the case has been a fictionalized version of real life trials. In 2016, the case possessed striking parallels to the trial regarding the death of Tamir Rice in Cleveland. The 2017 case related to the issues of political defamation and journalistic integrity.
After sending two teams to the state competition last year, Hoban will continue compete in the OCLRE’s high school mock trial program. The teams hope to once again qualify for states and reach the championship round for the sixth time.
“I’m so excited for this year. The case is interesting and our team is going to be awesome!” Josie Forney, a returning three-year veteran of Hoban mock trial, said.
