On November 4-6, four mock trial teams from Vestavia competed in the YMCA’s Youth Judicial State Competition. Leading up to the highly anticipated competition weekend, the teams assigned each member a role as an attorney or witness. Each attorney was given a witness on both the prosecution and defense side for whom to form direct and cross examinations, and each witness chose a character on both prosecution and defense to play. Attorneys also studied various objections, rules of evidence, and other courtroom formalities, while witnesses finetuned their characters to adapt different personalities and fully embody their stories.
This year’s case, which every school participating in the competition prepared, investigated the fictional alleged manslaughter of teenager Lauren Thomas during her school’s annual, somewhat-underground powderpuff game. The prosecution was tasked with drawing compelling evidence out of characters Chris Taylor, the only eyewitness to the chaos; Dr. Bailey Powell, the coroner who performed Lauren’s autopsy; and Jean Thomas, the heartbroken mother of the deceased. On the other side of the case, the defense attempted to poke holes in the solidity of proof by calling characters Henley Wells, the defendant’s best friend; Blake Williams, a slightly careless police officer; and Dr. Miller Edwards, the ER doctor on duty when Lauren was called in.
The teams were able to participate in a meet-and-greet reception to befriend competitors from other schools following a relatively brief opening ceremony Friday night. On Saturday, all four teams spent the full day in trials in either the federal courthouse or the Embassy Suites—each team went through two randomly-matched trials before competing in two power matches, which are rounds between two teams who had scored similarly in the competition thus far. Following the trials, all competitors returned to the Embassy Suites for dinner and a relaxed party to unwind. The participants also cast their ballots for the next year’s Youth Judicial Chief Justice.
On Sunday, the entire conference made the brief trip to the Supreme Court of Alabama for the final trial between the top two teams—a senior team from Spain Park and the senior team from UMS-Wright in Mobile. Of the seventeen youth judges at the conference, the trial was judged by nine, including Danielle Chbeir, who served as Vestavia’s representative on the bench. Chief Justice Kareena Singh from Montgomery Academy presided over the trial as the roughly 350 other students spectated. After the conclusion of the trial, the director of the program announced the awards. From Vestavia, Team Bailey received fifth place, and the Professional Crastinators came in seventh out of a total of 49 teams. Additionally, Libby Tunnell from Team Bailey and James Junkin from the Professional Crastinators both received Outstanding Witness awards.
Reflecting on the mock trial experience as a whole, junior attorney Emma Wolfe stated, “Building two sides of a case and prepping a team is a lot of work, but it’s so much fun and the skills you get out of it and the progress you make is so rewarding.” Furthermore, when asked what her favorite part of the state competition was, senior witness Libby Tunnell detailed, “I loved sitting in the Alabama Supreme Court to watch the final trial—that’s not an experience many high schoolers get to have. I also enjoyed meeting new people from all across the state who are just as dedicated and who share a common interest!”
For students more interested in Congressional procedures, Youth Legislature will be held February 24-26 in Montgomery. See Mr. Sinnott, the Alabama Youth in Government sponsor at VHHS, for questions or more information.
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