A Mock Trial & A Memory Master

Josiah lived and breathed his mock trial all week long.  Each day he had at least two meetings with his team.  There was always a big 2-3 hour, usually in-person, meeting during the day.  In the evenings, they would video chat or call each other the old fashioned way.  Early Friday morning, we all met at the courthouse.  Josiah's team was the defense during the first round.  Josiah played Tatum Zillias, the real estate developer accused of 3rd degree murder when a crane collapsed at a work site he was in charge of and two people died.  It was a fictional, but based on reality, type case.  They were trying to put roof panels on the building hours before a hurricane was about to hit.  The panels exceeded the crane's capacity and while they successfully got the first panel up, the second did not fare so well.  The crane collapsed.  A squatter and a government employee died.  Josiah's team had to prove reasonable doubt to get a not guilty verdict.  There was possibilities to do so because the government official, as well as the crane operator, gave the okay to raise the panels.  There was also the factor of bad weather - rain and strong winds.  

Josiah's team

Unfortunately, when we arrived at the courthouse, Josiah had a teammate pull a no-show.  It created frustrations as his team tried to scramble to cover his parts.  They tried to Zoom him through, but for whatever reason, he was only there one out of the four times they needed him.  Each time they tried to get him, it messed with the flow of the case (for both sides).  I think Josiah's greatest frustration was that this particular child has stated all semester that he was going to be sick on mock trial day.  So there was that.  Lesson learned that you need to have everyone's parts available in case this happens again.     

When the trial started, both sides were quite nervous.  We had a very good judge who helped them out at times.  The kids had learned that a team lost a few years ago because they raised zero objections.  This group was not going to let that happen.  Many objections were raised.  Most were overruled.  A few times an attorney called Objection! against their fellow teammate.  The judge explained that they couldn't do that.  Josiah was the last defense witness to take the stand.  I think the last question sealed his fate.  During cross examination, he was asked if he took responsibility for what happened.  He replied in the affirmative.

Questioning by defense lawyers

Cross-examination

Josiah as Bailiff

After the first case rested, the jury left to deliberate.  The results, however, would not be told until both trials were completed.  During the recess, we were not allowed to speak to the kids, give them any sort of hand signals, or mouth any words to them.  We had strict directives!  Anytime Josiah looked in our direction, I quickly turned my head the other way.  I didn't want to give the possibility of helping them.  

For the second trial (same case, but the prosecution and defense switched sides), Josiah played bailiff and his teammates were the prosecutors.  In the first trial, nerves were still on a high.  Those put on the stand gave very brief answers overall.  But by the second trial, the kids got more comfortable.  The defense did a very good job of raising reasonable doubt.  While both sides did well, when the jury announced their decisions for both trials, Josiah's team lost both.  He was pretty devastated.  He was really hoping that each team would win one round.     

We were still very proud of Josiah for all the hard work he had put into it.  He got to wallow in his sadness that afternoon, but by the evening we went out to celebrate.  Henry had completed his Director Proof for memory master the day before mock trial.  It was his first time to pass Cycle 2 (Middle Ages), and his fifth memory master total.  He was happy to have accomplished that.  So we celebrated all the hard work from both boys.  

Josiah is down to one final week of classes, which are his blue book exams.  This time they're going to do blue books Escape Room style, so it should be a fun way to finish out his year.  

Back in February when we did Caring for Katy with our church, it always puts us in the mood to clean up our own yard.  The weekend after Caring, we cleaned out the mess of dead shrubs and weeds in the backyard.  The intention was to get shrubs the following weekend to fill the space.  That didn't happen, so it's been us against the weeds ever since.   This weekend we finally got some shrubs to fill up some of the space.  Todd dug their spots, and after getting them planted, Benson has picked the plant second from the right as his new relieving spot.  So, we'll see how hardy these plants really are.      

After mock trial, next week seems like a piece of cake.