Taylor Ledford and Seth Paxton Win Annual Calvert Moot Court Competition

OU Law students this week participated in the annual Calvert Moot Court Competition, sponsored by the OU Law Board of Advocates and the Floyd and Irma Calvert Fund for Law and Liberty. Competitors included 2L and 3L students who researched a case that was argued before the Supreme Court earlier this month (Madison v. Alabama) and presented oral arguments before tournament judges.

Congratulations to this year’s winners, 3L Taylor Ledford and 2L Seth Paxton, who argued for the respondents! And job well done to 3Ls Justin Bates and Joshua Blair, who argued for the petitioners. Congratulations also to Andrew Rasbold (2L) for being awarded the title of Best Individual Speaker.

Madison v. Alabama poses two issues:

1) Whether, consistent with the Eighth Amendment, and the Supreme Court’s decisions in Ford v. Wainwright and Panetti v. Quarterman, a state may execute a prisoner whose mental disability leaves him with no memory of his commission of the capital offense; and
2) Whether evolving standards of decency and the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment bar the execution of a prisoner whose competency has been compromised by vascular dementia and multiple strokes causing severe cognitive dysfunction and a degenerative medical condition that prevents him from remembering the crime for which he was convicted or understanding the circumstances of his scheduled execution.

A ruling on the case by the court is pending. 

OU Law extends a special thanks to the final round judges:

Judge Wayne Alley, Western District of Oklahoma (retired); Jurist in Residence, OU College of Law
Vice Chief Justice Noma Gurich, Oklahoma Supreme Court
Vice Presiding Judge David Lewis, Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals
Judge Suzanne Mitchell, Magistrate Judge, Western District of Oklahoma
Judge Scott Palk, Western District of Oklahoma
Judge Scott Rowland, Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals
Judge Barbara Swinton, Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals
Dean Joseph Harroz Jr., OU College of Law
Professor Connie Smothermon, OU College of Law