![]() ![]() The team from Wilmington Charter will now head to Little Rock, Arkansas for the three day national competition May 18-20. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika, Delaware Superior Court President Judge Jan Jurden, Delaware State Court Administrator Gayle Lafferty and state senator Kyle Gay.Ĭape Henlopen placed third, Archmere Academy placed fourth, and Tower Hill placed fifth. The panel of scoring judges included U.S. “But you get more confident through each round, and your teammates uplift you,” he said. Mandayam said the competition can be overwhelming and intimidating at first, especially trying to remember all the procedural rules and courtroom jargon. It’s a privilege to be a part of this competition, he said, and he and his teammates are lucky to have legal professionals coach them. That’s something that a lot of people don’t get the opportunity to do.” “That speaks to the experience of being able to be in the courtroom and make arguments in front of real judges. “There’s something about this club that always had a pull at my school, and what you’ll see is people that join the club very rarely leave,” he said. Rohan Mandayam, a senior at Wilmington Friends who served as an attorney, said he has loved the mock trial experience, even though he doesn’t want to go into law. Wilmington Charter acted as the prosecution, defeating Wilmington Friends School, which had won the competition in 20. ![]() “You kind of just get to have that freedom of messing up and asking questions and enjoying ourselves as we act out the trial.” “It’s nice to just have fun and play with each other instead of being really stressed about trying to make it to finals,” Shweiki said. ![]() Shweiki said the teams are close-knit and become a family during the few months of preparing for the competition. “Having somebody who’s on the Supreme Court actually sit down and talk to us, just giving us the ruling and telling us what we did well and what we could have done better was a really invaluable experience,” Shweiki said. It’s easy to feel well-prepared when professional lawyers are serving as coaches, Shweiki said. “This experience has helped me keep my cool and learn how to argue my point in an effective way without getting defensive.” “Cross-examination is always really difficult and when it gets intense I tend to get really defensive,” Shweiki said. Shweiki was a witness in all rounds, and said they grew as a communicator because of the cross-examination. “I wasn’t really interested in law, but then after doing this, I found it so interesting to hear all the rules and operations of a courtroom.” “It was cool to see sort of the behind-the-scenes of how trials work,” Shweiki said. Archmere Academy’s Jace Walker won the best art award. There’s also a courtroom artist competition where students sketch a scene of the trial. Knowing this would be terrible for George’s heart, Ash created an antidote that George drank the night before the race to counteract any negative effects of the caffeinated drink.Įach team can have up to 14 students, including six attorneys, six witnesses and two timekeepers. To promote the company at a popular marathon, George wanted to show he would perform well in the race by fueling up with his own energy drink. George was a drug addict with heart conditions who wasn’t supposed to drink energy drinks or high levels of caffeine. It dealt with two business partners, George and Ash, who owned an energy drink company. This year’s case was civil and focused on a wrongful death. Each year, the teams get faced with a made-up case that switches each year from civil to criminal and back. This is the 32nd year for the state mock trial competition. Going to law school is something he’d love to do in the future, and he said the Wilmington Charter team really focused on the feedback from last year’s competition to improve this year. He presented the opening statement, directed one witness on his side and prosecuted a witness on the opposition. Narayan’s role on the winning team was defense attorney. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |