In the Matter of Alice Berkley
CAITLIN HORROCKS is the author of the novel The Vexations and the story collections Life Among the Terranauts (forthcoming 2021) and This Is Not Your City. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
WHEN I WATCHED the video afterward, I felt embarrassed. I hadn’t realized that my bangs were quite so fluffy, the rest of my hair so very long and limp; I hadn’t realized how weird the belt on my dress looked or how high my voice sounded. Mostly I was ashamed of how young and awkward I looked. I was young and awkward, but before watching the video—from the previous year’s mock trial finals, when I was a fifteen-year-old high school sophomore—I’d convinced myself that I’d successfully embodied my character: a high school teacher who’d witnessed an accident between a car and a bike and had been called to testify in court on behalf of the defense. The prosecutor cross-examining me was also a high school student, though a slightly older and more polished one. The only fully convincing thing in the video was the courtroom, because it was a real courtroom in the 36th District Court in Detroit.
The video footage came from an official Michigan High School Mock Trial Tournament match. Sponsored by the Michigan Center for Civic Education (MCCE) and the State Bar of Michigan, the tournament provides teams of students at high schools across the state with case materials every fall: witness statements, exhibits, rules of evidence. Each team contains two groups of students, one to prepare and perform the prosecution’s side, and another playacting the defense. A small team might require students to prepare and perform roles on both sides, but my high school had more than enough interested students to fill out separate rosters for each side. During practices, we scrimmaged with each other, rehearsing opening and closing statements and practicing direct and crossexaminations. During competitions, in winter and spring, the two squads are randomly pitted against the prosecutions and defenses from other schools. A strong showing from both sides allows the whole team to advance to additional rounds of trials. A poor showing from either side can get the
