by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
The legal eagles of the future will be testing their wings next week during three nights of mock trials at the Duval County Courthouse.
Students from three area schools will provide prosecutors, defense attorneys and witnesses for the competition, which begins at 6 p.m. April 19-21. Each “trial” lasts about two hours.
They are tentatively scheduled for Courtroom 23 but may be changed if activity in the courthouse warrants.
Participating high schools are Andrew Jackson, Fletcher and Wolfson.
The made-up scenario for each trial is wrapped around the Aid in Dying Act, which deals specifically with assisted suicide, said Lois Ragsdale, who is helping organize the competition.
“In this particular mock scenario, the act has been passed to ensure that a patient’s decision to end his or her life is truly voluntary,” said Ragsdale, an attorney with the Public Defender’s Office. “For these mock trials, a retired businessman has committed suicide with the assistance of his physician.
“The grand jury then indicted the physician for coercing or exerting undue influence on him in his decision to end his life.”
In the real world, the charge would be manslaughter, a second-degree felony, under Florida law. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that terminally ill people do not have a constitutional right to a physician-assisted suicide.
Students from Fletcher and Jackson have taken part in the local trial for the past two years, Ragsdale said. This will be a first for Wolfson, which usually goes to the statewide competition.
Each school is sending three “attorneys” and three “witnesses” along with as many as two alternates.
“The teams must be fully prepared to argue both sides of the issue,” said Ragsdale. “During one trial, the school will be the prosecution; in another trial, it will be the defense.”
Each school will sit out one of the trials.
The teacher-coordinators helping the students are Pam Basney (Wolfson), Ed Lange (Fletcher) and Mary Jo Antone (Andrew Jackson).
This is the fourth year that Ragsdale has been involved in the competition, her third for trying to organize all the different parts.
“Trying to get this thing together is always more work than you think it’s going to be,” said Ragsdale. “It’s one thing getting the schools together, getting them to participate. Then you work on which nights are good, when we can do it because of spring break or finals or prom.”
County Court Judge Pauline Drayton-Harris has agreed to be the judge for Monday’s mock trial. The “jurors” will be local private attorneys, most of whom were signed up by Patrick Earley, also a private attorney.
Helping line up the judges and “jurors” were Earley, Juanita Powell-Williams and other members of the Law Week Committee.
“I was more than happy to call people who said they were willing to help,” said Ragsdale.
The attorneys acting as jurors also will be scoring judges, critiquing the students’ performances on a scale of one to 10. Presiding judges will decide which side presented the better argument.
“If there’s a question as to who’s best out of the three schools, it’s the numbers that will decide,” said Ragsdale.
The winning school will receive a trophy. Awards will also be presented to the Most Effective Attorney and the Most Effective Witness. Winners will also be invited to the Law Day Luncheon May 10, which will feature Judge Kenneth Starr as guest speaker.
“Being a witness in one of these things is very time-consuming and difficult,” said Ragsdale. “Some kids don’t take it too seriously, but some take it very seriously. Some of these witnesses are really, really good.
“It really is fun. The students do get caught up in it.”