WHAT IS A MOCK TRIAL?
A mock trial is when students are in a team and they get different cases that have a crime in them. There are normally 2 teams, a prosecution and a defense. The defense’s job is to help the jury find the defendant not guilty, the prosecution will have to prove that he is guilty. Each team has 2 lawyers and 4 witnesses. Before the trial they get about 2 months to prepare for their case including doing a case theory and a witness matrix. Once the time is up the head to the courthouse and fight for a winning case. Mock trials let kids at Lively experience being in a courthouse and getting to examine real criminal cases if they one day want to become a lawyer.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE UPCOMING CASES?
I interviewed one of the mock trial students, 8th grader Amelia Ratcliffgardy and she told me a quick summary about the upcoming case she has. Her case is about a murder that Kaycee Davidson is being accused of. She is being accused of murdering Alex Thompson. In this case it is the defense’s job to try and prove Kaycee Davidson not guilty and the prosecution is trying to prove Kaycee guilty of the murder.
WHAT DO STUDENTS THINK ABOUT MOCK TRIAL?
“Mock trial is a very intense class that requires a lot of hard work but it can still be really fun,” said Ratcliffgardy.
“It’s alright,I just don’t like doing the tests and work in the class, ” said 8th grader Nathalie Torres.
I personally think mock trial can be fun but sometimes people one your team don’t work as much
HOW DID TODAY’S MOCK TRIAL GO?
When students came back from their trial today, they were very tired. Ratcliffgardy, who was a lawyer on her case, said that her team had won. She said that her team worked very well and was able to pull off a good mock trial.
