Missouri’s Constitution Project Kick Off event was held September 21st in Jefferson City. Courtney Colench, junior, described for us what exactly the Constitution Project is.

“It’s a competition between different schools. You get to test your ability to go in and look at a crime scene, analyze it, take the case to court, and be able to prove how it happened and in what way,” Colench said.

We also had Hannah Holton-Langley, a junior and one of the team’s attorneys, explain the process for us.

“First we go to a debate in Jefferson City and are given a write up of a bill. We get to go into the House of Representatives and have a debate over the bill and how we feel about it and then, depending on the points we make, we can get more points for our court case. A couple weeks later a crime scene team will go in and investigate a mock crime and a week after that they will have a court trial,” Langley-Holton said.

As a sketch artist for the team, Colench described what the crime scenen investigation process is like.

“First we go to a crime scene, analyze it, sketch, take pictures. Then we take all of that information and give it to the law side and the journalism team, they take and it analyze it as well. Then depending on what side we get, whether we’re trying to prove them guilty or prove their innocence, we try to prove who did it. The law team will try to take it to court and then it’s like a normal court case,” Colench said.