In re Lewis: Case File, First Edition

In In re Lewis, what started out as a fun Saturday among teenage buddies ends in the slammer, when Tony Lewis, Matty Smith, and Tony’s younger cousin Alex Duval are picked up by Nita City Police for conspiring to rob a convenience store at gunpoint. With Tony and Matty each having a history of juvenile delinquency, the stakes become high and each boy accuses the other of being the brains behind the heist. The State of Nita alleges that Tony committed robbery, theft, and trespassing—accusations buoyed by Matty’s own admission to theft and testimony implicating Tony and Alex in the robbery. In re Lewis is designed to assist in the training of lawyers who work in juvenile court either prosecuting or defending children in delinquency matters. It can also be used as a bench trial for attorneys practicing in adult criminal court and a law school course in trial advocacy and juvenile law. To introduce more wrinkles into the case, professors may elect to teach supplemental detention materials on Tony Lewis, which include a report from Tony’s probation officer, school transcripts and suspension notices, and letters of character reference. This case file refines the student’s advocacy and examination skills, and features four witnesses for the prosecution and three for the defense, police reports, photos, maps, and diagrams, as well as social media evidence in the form of posts to Facebook and Twitter that are accessible on online “microsites.”