Grady High competes in state mock trial competition

You may recall our intern, Grady High junior Elizabeth McGlamry, who in her spare time is a championship competitor for Grady’s vaunted mock trial team. (See video above for refresher!) Here she writes about the ongoing state championship this weekend. She’ll have an update next week, with a personal perspective on the competition. Good luck to Elizabeth and Grady. Here’s her take:

With exhibits and examinations in hand, 18 of the state’s most talented mock trial teams prepare to head to the Gwinnett County Courthouse for Georgia’s High School Mock Trial State competition. Sixteen regional champions and two wild card picks will go to face-off in mock trials for the state champion title. The case is a liability case over a wrongful termination because of a violation of civil rights set in the fictional city of Miltonville. Two police officers – a former detective and the chief of police – battle to prove who was right: the detective, who believes he was fired for a comment he posted on a social networking site called “MiltFace” and the chief, who vehemently denies such accusations.

Teams provide 14 competing members two provide for two sides of the case, defense and plaintiff, and each side has three attorneys, three witness roles and one time keeper. Sides go against the opposite of another school for roughly two and a half hours, creating a law-and-order-type atmosphere as they conduct an entire trial from preliminary matters to closing arguments. With two rounds on Saturday and the semifinal and final rounds on Sunday, the competition spans the whole weekend and ends with the crowning of a new state championship and the passing of the giant, state-champion gavel.