Members in a marching band from Florida are being tried starting Monday for beating band members with mallets, fists, and drumsticks, and killing one band member, as part of a hazing initiation they called “crossing Bus C.”

The Florida A & M University’s Marching 100 has played for the Super Bowl and before U.S. Presidents. However, their status is no excuse for the family of Robert Champion, the drum major who died three years ago as a result of the band’s drastic ideas about proving his worthiness to his band mates.

There are four defendants left of the fifteen band members charged with manslaughter and hazing. The others settled their cases out of court, and several will be present at the trial as witnesses, according to The Associated Press.

The incident at FAMU increased awareness across the country about hazing in marching bands. The FAMU band was suspended for over a year and the president of the college resigned.

The initiation ritual consisted of having the initiates cross the inside of a bus – entitled Bus C – from the front to the back while being pummeled by fists, drumsticks and mallets.

On November 11, in the parking lot of a hotel, Robert Champion from Decatur, Georgia, endured the hazing. He made it to the back of the bus, but he vomited and said he had trouble breathing. He fell unconscious soon after and was never revived. His autopsy revealed excessive internal bleeding. The cause of death was hemorrhagic shock.

The four who plead not guilty of the charges of manslaughter and hazing are Darryl Cearnel, Aaron Golson, Benjamin McNamee, and Dante Martin. The trial for Cearnel, Golson, and McNamee may be delayed by a challenge to the addition of the hazing charge put forward by the defendants’ attorneys.

State Attorney Jeff Ashton told jurors to do their research and understand the hazing was nothing new to the FAMU marching band.

“They got on the bus for one thing and that is to break the law,” said Ashton.