Culpepper and Warzecha Capture Spring Moot Court Title

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Two University of Arkansas School of Law students won the school’s internal Moot Court competition. Chris Warzecha of Plano, Texas, and Ryan Culpepper of Hot Springs, Ark., emerged victorious in the Benjamin J. Altheimer Moot Court Competition held this spring at the law school. Warzecha and Culpepper represented the respondent and defeated Haley Heath and Brian Johnston, both of Wynne, Ark., who represented the petitioner.

"My favorite part of the competition was the rush that I got from each argument,” says Warzecha, who was named Best Oralist in the competition. “Even though there was not an audience until the final round, having to think on your feet and then convey your arguments persuasively to a panel of your professors or peers really gets your heart rate up.”

“I also did enjoy the process of writing the brief – but I may be alone on that one," Warzecha noted, not surprisingly, as he and Culpepper also were awarded Best Brief in the competition.

To advance to the finals, those four students competed against other second-year students beginning with the school’s Fall Moot Court competition. Thirty-two of these students earned scores high enough to advance to the Spring Moot Court competition, where they began to compete in tournament fashion, ultimately advancing to the final round. Also making the final four in the competition were Nicholas Vilmain of Boone, Iowa, and Kris Koelemay of Jonesboro, Ark., as well as Greg Northern of Hot Springs Villiage, Ark., and Justin Kavalir of Kilbourne, La.

The students argued the case of United States v. Baier, in which a 17-year old girl had kidnapped and shot the governor of the fictitious state of Old York, with whom she was having an affair. The governor had refused to publicly acknowledge their relationship, and, in retaliation, Baier shot him twice, ultimately paralyzing him. The two issues on appeal were whether prejudicial pretrial publicity had made it impossible for Baier to receive a fair trial in the district of Old York, and whether sentencing a 17-year-old to life in prison without the possibility of parole should be considered cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.

Warzecha and Culpepper’s victory on behalf of the respondent in the hypothetical problem would effectively mean that Baier should receive a change of venue out of the district of Old York, and that her sentence should not be as severe as life without the possibility of parole.

The finals of the competition were judged by the Honorable Leon Holmes, chief judge for the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Arkansas, the Honorable Beth Deere, U.S. magistrate judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and the Honorable William A. Storey, Arkansas Fourth Judicial Circuit judge, Division One.