A Look Into a Texas YG Attorney’s Life
What is a prosecution attorney, and what do they do? Cornell Law defines this as “an attorney elected or appointed by local government officials to represent the state in a criminal case brought in a judicial district or designated county.” Prosecution attorneys are the people who go against the person who has been charged with violating the law. Brooke Desir is a student at Saginaw High School in Texas and a prosecuting attorney in the Judicial section of the YMCA Texas Youth and Government program. This year’s case is about a police officer who shot and killed a woman who he mistook for an armed burglar while investigating her house with his partner. The prosecution had to prove that the officer had the intent to kill.
The prosecution has to meet the burden of proof, which Desir describes as “proof beyond any reasonable doubt.” She says this is the hardest part of being a prosecuting attorney “because you can have all this emotion and stuff, but if you can’t actually meet the law, that’s kind of where the law in mock trial plays in.”
Mock trial involves a lot of teamwork with your fellow attorneys and your witnesses. Being able to work together with people and cooperating with your team is a must if you want to do well during the trial.
Brooke Desir and her team work amazingly together, and, according to Desir, they are always trying to come up with new ways to prove [their] case.” Desir first looks at the law, and based off of the law, she sees what she can use to make it work in her favor. She specifically loves using figurative language to make their case more emotional and compelling, appealing to people’s emotions to sway them to her side. In the days leading up to the trial, Desir and her team ran through the entirety of their case at least once a day, every day. The team’s attorneys and witnesses must memorize everything about the case and what they have to do and say. Whether someone wins or loses their trial isn’t a big deal in the Judicial section, as everyone is criticized and praised by both the judge and evaluator. In the end, though, Desir says, “When you like what you do, it’s really easy to do it.”
Written By: Edy Wang, LASA