State v. Mann - The First Mock Trial

In class on Wednesday, we had our first mock trial, and it was of the State v. Mann case. In this case, a man named John Mann shot a slave he was renting from a lady named Elizabeth Jones. The slave was not killed, but Mr. Mann was fined $10. In this mock trial two teams came up with different ways to speak about the case that would encourage the judges to choose their side of the argument.

The first team was against Mr. Mann. They believed that what he had done was cruel and unnecessary, and that he should get fined the $10. One of their strongest arguments was about the Bible and how the Bible says that it is wrong to harm someone to like this. They said this goes against the words of God. They also brought up that there was a very similar case where another slave was harmed and that the person that harmed the slave was fined.

The second team was for Mr. Mann. They believed that Mr. Mann should not be fined the $10 because at the time of the incident Mr. Mann was renting the slave, therefore he had full authority to do so. They also had a very strong argument that Mr. Mann was actually saving the slaves life by shooting her. If the slave had gotten away, she could have been captured by bounty hunters and tortured, and she would have had no where to go. Shooting her allowed her to stay where she had a place to stay with food.

The most crucial point that the second team made was that if a slave dies under the hand of the owner he is to be punished, but if they live a day or two, they are not to be punished. The slave did live, therefore this argument shows that Mr. Mann should not be punished. I believe that this was the most important point that either team made, and for that, I believe the second team won this mock trial.