Glen A. Wilson’s mock trial program competed on Nov. 11 at the Stanley Mosk courthouse in Los Angeles, the largest trial courthouse in the U.S.,
where they enacted a real life fictional murder trial. The defense team garnered a partially successful verdict in the presence of Judge Dean Hansell Department 11 where members represented their innocent defendant. This is only the beginning to the trial as there are different aspects to the court case however Wilson is in the run to achieving a win.
Senior Captain Emily Axelrod shares how the trial went for her personally.
“The trial went all right for my witness statements as my attorney and I had a lot planned for me to say and stay in character. The issue that we knew was going to get objected to narrative a lot. So my attorney prepared a lot of response questions to argue that it is not objectionable.” Axelrod vocalized
“However, the person right before me, I noticed, was getting objected, a lot, and the judge didn’t give them a chance to argue the objection. So, essentially, my entire direct was improvised to be as short as possible, because I was also running out of time. I fought against the clock and I fought to cut down all my lines, and stay in character all at the same time while acting as innocent as possible.”
Junior Christian Sentosa describes a typical competition schedule in a mock trial.
“We go as the Defense side of the trial first. Then, we [switch to] the prosecution side, arguing the same case from different points of views against other schools.”
Sentosa also shared the preparation that goes into such a critical competition and his excitement for it.
“The preparation is the memorization of our lines, the creation of our arguments, and our witness’s acting.” Sentosa said.
“I am most excited to go to the courthouse and see everything we have been practicing in a real environment.”
Anything could happen during the three hour competition making it vital for our Wilson competitors to always be ready for a challenge.
Sophomore Olivia Du provides insight to her thoughts going into the competition and what she believed were the defense teams’ strong qualities that won their victory.
“I feel nervous about this competition because there are so many components to the case this year. I am also confident that both of our teams will pull through and receive a favorable verdict from the judge.”
“I believe our determination helped us pull through the stress of the competition. In terms of skill, our team is filled with bright and studious individuals who have extreme artistic and intellectual abilities to craft words. We were capable of sounding formal and being strong in keeping our composure” Oliva responded
As the prosecution team competes at the Stanley Mosk courthouse once again for their second round on Nov. 8, make sure to keep an eye on the lookout for what is more to come.
