At the request of Beth Prokesch, seventh grade English teacher and Salisbury Middle School English Department liaison, Senior Deputy District Attorney Anna-Kristie Marcks visited students in seventh grade as part of the curriculum of career choices.

Prokesch met Marcks in 2015 while serving on jury duty. Marcks was the lead attorney on the case and Prokesch was very impressed with her.

Marcks has been an attorney for almost 10 years and has prosecuted hundreds of cases. She is currently assigned to the special victims unit. In this unit, she handles both sexual and physical abuse cases in juvenile and adult court and prosecutes defendants charged with homicide in child death investigations.

Marcks received her Bachelor of Arts degree in both political science and Latin American Studies from the University of Delaware where she was the recipient of the Woman of Promise Award twice. She earned her law degree from Touro Law School in 2006.

Since becoming a senior deputy district attorney, she has attended numerous conferences and training seminars on prosecuting crimes against children in California, South Carolina, Washington, D.C. and Texas and has taught both nationally and internationally.

Following the first debate of the year in Prokesch’s class, students had an increased interest in the law profession so they wrote to Marcks about debating, law school, research skills, career choices and more.

Marcks came to the school toward the end of the school year and met with the students for a little over an hour.

Two students, Connor Graham and Katie Updegrove, sat down with The Press to talk about Marcks’ visit. Both are considering a law career.

During the assembly, Marcks was asked why she wanted to be a lawyer. “She said in high school she was really good at arguing,” Katie said. “She knew she wanted to work with kids because her parents worked with kids.” Katie said Marcks interned at the district attorney’s office with criminal justice and realized then she wanted to be a lawyer.

“We were most excited to hear about the legal steps and the wide variety of law – criminal, bank robbers and animal court where they settle animal cases,” Conner said.

Katie said the length of time in law school depends on the type of law practice.

Marcks told the students sometimes court cases take between eight months to one year.

Students asked Marcks if she ever met a psychopath to which she replied, “Yes.”

Marcks said the hardest case she ever worked on was involving a six-year-old girl. It was her favorite because she enjoys working with kids and she won the case, satisfied with the outcome.

Marcks told the students she has never defended anyone who was guilty and never will. She has handled crazy cases, sexual cases, shaken baby cases and those cases involving things done to children and those who have purposely killed babies.

Marcks said her job is to stick up for children who can’t defend themselves.

Students asked how often people plead guilty. Marcks said it is very rare because people think they are innocent or don’t want to go to jail.

Marcks gave the students tips on not getting nervous such as always be in your mindset and always think positive.

Connor said he looks at court cases on YouTube such as Matlock. “I always knew court cases weren’t fast paced but I never realized how long they could be,” Connor said.

Connor said he is considering a career in criminal law and Katie said she has not decided yet.