Mock Trial Competition to be held

The Monroe County Bar Association will hold its 2022 County Mock Trial Invitational Competition at 9 a.m. Nov. 19 at East Stroudsburg South High School, 279 N. Courtland St., East Stroudsburg.

The competition involves teams of students from local schools including Dunmore, Honesdale, Delaware Valley, Western Wayne, East Stroudsburg South, Notre Dame of East Stroudsburg, Palmerton, Pocono Mountain East, Stroudsburg, MMI Prep and Hazleton. Each team will litigate a criminal case before judges and attorneys of the Monroe County Bar Association.

This year’s case centers around a cheating scandal that ends in a murder being committed at a top 10 undergraduate college in the United States that is renowned for its research in the arts, sciences and engineering. The commonwealth claims that an individual, who was attending the college and was pledging a fraternity, discovered that members of the fraternity he was pledging were cheating and threatened to reveal the cheating to the school. The individual was found dead shortly after making the threats. The commonwealth charged one of the fraternity brothers with murder. The fraternity brother, while acknowledging that he is guilty of hazing, asserts that he is not guilty of murder.

Each of the schools referenced above, will have teams in the competition that consist of three attorneys, who will direct and cross-examine witnesses based upon the facts presented in documentation provided to them for the competition. Each team must try the case four times. The teams will represent the state in two rounds and the defendant in another two rounds.

The competition between the schools provides students the opportunity to learn how the legal system operates; provides students the opportunity to view the legal forum first-hand; gives students the opportunity to enhance their public speaking skills; gets students to engage in critical thinking; gives students the opportunity to enhance their public speaking skills; gets the students to engage in the elusive art of civil discourse; and gives students an opportunity to bring recognition to their school.