Mock trial lets students be lawyers

John White, a student at Albuquerque Academy, argues for the prosecution during a mock trial competition Saturday at Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court. The competition, which Academy won, drew teams from 16 high schools around Albuquerque. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal)

Prosecutor Roushon Talcott straightened her suit before delivering a closing argument to remind jurors just how serious the crime before them was.

“These were just kids, kids whose lives were stolen by the defendant,” she told the jury Saturday at Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court.

Talcott, an 18-year-old senior at Albuquerque Academy, was arguing during a mock trial competition that attracted 23 teams from 16 high schools in and around Albuquerque.

Albuquerque Academy, the defending national champion, would go on to win first place in Saturday’s regional competition, and Talcott won an “outstanding attorney” award for her presentation. Teams from Albuquerque High School and Pojoaque High School won third and second place, respectively, at the competition.

The facts of the case, purely fictional, were based entirely off Tony Hillerman’s novel, “Dance Hall of the Dead,” which is set on the Navajo Reservation and investigates the disappearance and murder of two boys.

The novel contains culture, crime and intrigue – all factors that the competition’s organizer said make for court proceedings that students can really sink their teeth into.

Albuquerque High School’s Dana Paine, right, Samantha Pentecost, left, and Kier Strader-Monaghan, middle, listen intently to the prosecution during the mock trial competition Saturday at Metro Court. The case was based on a Tony Hillerman mystery novel set on the Navajo Reservation about the murder of two boys.

“They learn other things apart from just courtroom skills,” said Michelle Giger, executive director of the Center for Civic Values. “If you have to do anything in your life where you have to take and defend a position, mock trial will allow you to do it.”

Giger said students who participate pick up skills for critical thinking and listening, research, teamwork, public speaking and writing. She also said the program has become increasingly popular since it began in New Mexico 35 years ago.

New Mexico has sent a team to the National High School Mock Trial Championship each year since it began in 1984, Giger said. Since then, teams representing New Mexico have finished in the top 10 seven times, and the state’s success reached a peak in 2012.

Last year, in addition to Academy’s first-place finish, Volcano Vista High School won seventh place – the first time a single state had two teams in the top 10 and the first time a host state won the competition, Giger said.

“I can’t give you the number of hours these people give to their teams,” she said.

Past mock trials, generally based off novels or real-life cases, have dealt with domestic violence, hate crimes and cyber-stalking.

Talcott said after the trial that she has participated in the competition for five years and has learned to be more confident and outgoing. She described winning the national championship last year as “the best day of my life” and now hopes to attend law school.

“I changed my mind, and I’m pretty sure that’s what I want to do.”

In March, the winning teams from Saturday’s contest will go onto the state competition, and the state winners will compete in the national competition in Indianapolis in May.