Defendant Reginald McKay, a mentally disturbed American who became a “home-grown” Islamic terrorist, poisoned members of a Jewish temple during Passover seder. After one of the poisoned congregants died, the Feds got a lucky break thanks to an eyewitness and modern computer forensics and quickly built a death penalty case against McKay. Newton’s case file, United States v. McKay, is built around the tragic story of McKay and his victims and includes twenty advocacy exercises from all major stages of a criminal case.
Each of these twenty exercises will introduce a wrinkle—involving a constitutional challenge to procedures or evidence—that students then analyze through the lens of the Supreme Court’s decisions in landmark criminal procedure cases such as Batson v. Kentucky, Jackson v. Virginia, and United States v. Cronic, among others. Taken as a whole, these exercises track the maneuverings of a complex criminal defense and prosecution, starting with pretrial motions; continuing through jury selection, trial, and sentencing; and concluding with postconviction motions. An instructor using Legal Advocacy in Action may, as desired, direct students either to prepare short written pleadings or to practice oral advocacy in support of their legal arguments.
This fusion of factually compelling scenarios and intellectually challenging legal doctrines creates a robust learning experience that seeks to hone students’ skills regarding both legal analysis and legal advocacy concerning constitutional issues that arise throughout the entire course of a criminal case. Trial Advocacy in Action is ideal for use in upper-level criminal procedure classes, law school mock trial competitions, and continuing legal education (CLE) seminars for new criminal practitioners.
Law professors may request the statement of the case in United States v. McKay and a sample advocacy exercise from the book. Teaching notes are also available.
“Brent Newton has done a tremendous job of applying the NITA simulation method to criminal law practice. This book will be an outstanding resource for anyone studying, teaching, or practicing criminal law.”
Steven Lubet
Northwestern University School of Law
“The case file and materials are extremely detailed, practice oriented, and provide useful case law to assist participants in the preparation of their motions and arguments. There are very few NITA case materials that focus exclusively on the various factual and constitutional motions that can and should be filed in a criminal case. This is one of them.”
Karen Steinhauser
Denver criminal defense attorney
“Professor Newton has produced a timely and challenging set of self-contained practice exercises that provide lawyers and law students the opportunity to sharpen their analytical and forensic skills in the context of representing the government or the defendant in a federal capital murder case. These materials are timely in two ways. First, today law schools increasingly are being asked to provide their students with practice-oriented courses that offer experientially-based learning opportunities. This set of exercises does just that. The students or lawyers are placed in the position of being the prosecutor or the defense attorney in a capital murder case and are required to read a seminal U.S. Supreme Court case as the basis for arguing pretrial, trial, and posttrial motions. This requires the students or lawyers to analyze the provided legal precedents and to construct and present persuasive arguments. These materials are timely in another way. The case involves a “home-grown” terrorist, a radical Islamist youth who attacks a service at a Jewish synagogue with ricin poison, injuring several and killing one person. The case file echoes the Boston Marathon bombing. The materials are self-contained, meaning that no outside research beyond the provided one Supreme Court opinion is necessary. However, in the law school context, the author suggests one or two other cases on the specifically assigned issue that could also be read.”
Prof. Frederick C. Moss (Emeritus)
Southern Methodist University
Dedman School of Law