This past week, I was not able to meet with my mentor, because we both were busy and couldn’t find time to make our schedules align. So throughout the week, I ended up restarting my witness questions because I felt like the old ones weren’t proving what needed to be proven. So I restarted the first witness- Shanon Pollock and looked at rules of evidence and old Mock Trial Materials to see how to create the most effective story -telling effect from witnesses. Then, I also started the second witness, and then learned how to introduce evidence while questioning. My third witness is the detective, and for that I need to establish him as an expert to have him testify as a professional where there’s a lot of hearsay and speculation exceptions with rules of evidence. I did research on how to establish him, and I also started building a profile on him where I added information that I could find online. Another thing I did this past week was watch the opening arguments of Derek Chavin’s trial, since the four week trial started last week. I used this as a research and observation opportunity to see how lawyers present their opening arguments, for both defense and prosecution. This trial was really important to me because it’s social justice issues like these that got me interested in law in the first place.
- Akanksha Kumar
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