More than half a century after John F. Kennedy’s assassination in downtown Dallas, his alleged killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, was found “not guilty” during a trial in the Abernathy Courtroom of Collin College’s Spring Creek Campus, April 13.
Oswald’s long-delayed day in court was the Collin College Political Justice League’s (PJL) Trial of the Century, an annual mock trial that gives PJL members the opportunity to revisit historical events and provides a modern audience with the chance to see what the trial might have looked like first-hand. Although far removed from the events of Kennedy’s murder on Nov. 22, 1963, the student organization presented prosecution and defense cases, provided witnesses and showed video evidence of the assassination in the form of the “Zapruder Film.”
There was an audible gasp, some light applause and some excited chatter after the verdict was read, followed by a couple of audience members from the packed house in the courtroom loudly exclaiming that the jury got it wrong.
“We did not know what the outcome would be, whether the jury would find Lee Harvey Oswald guilty or not guilty,” PJL Advisor and Collin College Political Science Professor Julie Hershenberg said. “What is important is that it had to be a unanimous vote, so even though there were jurors who wanted to find Lee Harvey Oswald guilty, they couldn’t because they didn’t have the unanimous support of the rest of the jury.”
The Trial of the Century events are an outgrowth of mock trial competitions held in the fall, according to Hershenberg. Once the American Mock Trial Association’s competitions are over, Professor Hershenberg likes for the PJL members to have a chance to demonstrate to the college community what they have learned. Last year, the PJL conducted a civil trial based on a lawsuit arising from the sinking of the Titanic. Next year, the organization plans to take on the O.J. Simpson trial.
This year’s Trial of the Century was inspired by the release of some of the remaining JFK assassination records in 2017, although most of the testimony came from longstanding historical documents, including the Warren Commission.
The jurors who determined Oswald’s fate were comprised of family members of the mock trial team, and students like Terah Richardson, a PJL Mock Trial Team Captain who played the part of jury foreperson.
“I love (these trials),” Richardson said. “This time it was different because I have never sat on the jury. So, to watch it unfold was very interesting, unique and entertaining.”