After a half hour of deliberations, a jury of ISU students delivered a hung-jury decision in a mock trial held to raise awareness of rape and sexual assault.

A total of five male and seven female audience members served on the jury. The student volunteers were questioned about their biases and beliefs regarding acquaintance rape before they were allowed to participate. Jurors were asked to define rape and how they felt about the word “no.”

Members of the jury then heard two different stories about the night of an alleged rape. Andrea Gunning, junior in psychology, played the role of the victim, Jane Junior. She testified she had been raped by Sam Senior. Thomas Fawcett, freshman in aerospace engineering, played Senior, charged with third-degree sexual abuse.

Junior said that after three hours of drinking and dancing at a party, Senior offered to drive her home. After coming in to use the restroom, Senior sat down on the couch next to Junior and forced himself on her.

“I was scared,” Junior testified. “I was afraid he would hurt me worse if I tried to resist.”

Senior said the two had consensual sex and Junior said “don’t stop.” He said she kept kissing him and never gave him any strong reason to believe she wanted him to stop.

Registered Nurse Gerri Hagerty and Detective David Konopa of the Ames Police Department also volunteered to play witnesses in the trial. As members of the Story County Sexual Assault Response Team, both volunteered to participate and testify for the state.

While the jury deliberated, Penny Rosenthal, interim director of the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center, mediated audience discussion about the trial. A poll showed 72 percent of the audience would have found Senior guilty.

Audience members said they felt that although the prosecution didn’t do a good job of proving Senior guilty, they sympathized with the shock and embarrassment Junior went through. The audience felt alcohol did not play a big part in their decision.

Rosenthal also brought up the idea of stereotypes in rape and how defense attorneys will try to show flaws in a woman’s reputation. Often these issues aren’t raised about the male, she said.

Riana LeJeune, freshman in psychology, said that while it was a difficult decision, she would have found Senior guilty. The trial was realistic and emotional, she said.

“The trial was very emotionally hard to listen to,” LeJeune said. “The actors were so convincing, the details and descriptions of the act were hard to hear.”

LeJeune said she could see how it would be hard to make a decision when it is one person’s word against another. The trial did a good job of showing how confusing a rape case can be, she said.

Assistant Story County Attorney Angelina Smith, who played the role of the prosecutor, said she sees similar situations played out in state courts quite often.

“It is not uncommon to see the scenario of a woman to go home intoxicated and not remember what happened,” she said. “It makes it very hard to get convictions in these type of trials.”