Mock Trial: State v Mann

Background: The 1829 decision of the North Carolina Supreme Court in State v. Mann declared that chattel slaves had no rights from their masters. Thomas Ruffin authored the opinion of the court, in which he asserted the “full dominion of the owner over the slave.” The defendant in the case was John Mann, a North Carolinian who had been renting a slave named Lydia. When she committed a trifling offense, Mann whipped her. During the whipping, Lydia attempted to escape, so Mann shot her, gravely wounding her. North Carolina authorities deemed his response to her escape attempt disproportionate and charged him with assault and battery. In the criminal trial, the jury ruled against him. He appealed, claiming that assault on a slave by her master could not be indictable since a slave was property of her master.

(http://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/state-v-mann/)

During the mock trial, the judge ruled in favor of state due to a set precedence that shows the decision of the court to be ethical, despite any moral attributes provided by the defense for Mr. Mann. Prosecution contributed good stances on five separate arguments, but the defense knocked a couple, such as religious reasoning, down. If not for precendents held within the court already, the prosecution very well may have lost.