Mock Trial Reflection
Last week the seventh and eight grade learned about the legal process by doing mock trials. We were taught how to do the mock trial by John Fraher and Kasra Sader who are lawyers. The classes were divided into a defense group and prosecution group. I was on the prosecution side which means John taught us. To learn about court John made up a court case and gave it to everybody. The case was about a couple of skydivers called Monica Hewitt and Jennifer White. When Jennifer jumped out of the plane her parachute did not open, causing her to die. Monica was accused of killing Jennifer because she used to date Jennifer’s boyfriend and she was jealous of Jennifer. The prosecution’s job was to prove that Monica was guilty and the defenses job was to prove her innocent.
On the first day John told us details about the case, and the witnesses involved. We were divided up into four groups of two on the prosecution and defense. One of us had to write the opening statement and two sets of questions. The others had the closing argument and another two sets of questions for the witnesses. As the prosecution we had to stay away from all the things that would be bad for our case and the defense would have to jump on those opportunities. My partner was David and he wrote the closing and I wrote the opening. When writing the opening I found it harder then writing the questions because we had to say everything that we are about to say, and how we were going to prove our case. When I first showed my opening to John he said it was too short, so I had to take it home and make it longer. After that I think it turned out about right.
Friday was the day of the trial. In total there were 4 trials, two at a time. The fifth and sixth grade played the jury so we would have a good result, because they did not know anything about the case. John and Kasra played the judges for all of the trials. I was one of the first two teams to go. The other team was really good, and made a stronger argument at closing than us. In the end the jury said that the defense won. In some of the other trials though, the prosecution won. I was not too disappointed that we lost because I know I did great job, and learned a lot from John and Kasra. I would like to thank them for setting this whole thing up. Next year I hope we do something like this again.
