On Saturday, March 13th, Community High School’s Cheryl Grace will be up at 5:00 am in the morning; phone calls will begin to go out to lawyers first and then the lawyers will call their respective witnesses. As the phone tree branches out, the Community High School Mock Trial team will start to rise in efforts of meeting in the CHS parking lot by 6:15 am. Having complained about the early wake up calls, the team is ready to form a convoy to Pontiac, Michigan. There the team will be competing off and on for the next 12 hours.

The A and B team will compete separately in two trials before taking a short break for lunch. The teams will then reconvene in separate courtrooms for the third and final trial of the day. The trials last approximately two and a half hours and involve six witnesses and two statements given by lawyers. Although each school is prepared to compete as either the defense or prosecution only one half of the team will be able to showcase their talent in a single trial. The winning team is chosen by three judges -who form their opinion on overall case analysis as well as individual performance. Finally the team will attend an award ceremony where they hope to retain their title as the number one team in the Eastern Region.

This year’s case involves a cheating scandal and possible murder in the fictional high school of Clearwater.

On the morning of Monday, June 8th, Anne Marcus’ body was found on the shore of a small cove in Ballena Beach Park. The facts will show that her skull was brutally fractured. That she was dragged into the lake and left to drown. How could this happen? As hard as it maybe for us to accept, we will prove that she was murdered by a fellow student, by Alex Johnson. What led Johnson to commit such an act? We will prove that Johnson made a series of choices. He chose to cheat. He chose to threaten. And finally, he chose to kill.
– Excerpt from the opening Statement of the prosecution, given by Garrett Wood