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Gray Stone Mock Trial:
Guilty of By Raegan Perry
Last Saturday, all of the hard work from the Gray Stone Mock Trial team
paid off. After traveling three hours on Friday night to the mountains
of
The morning of the competition began with a continental breakfast, black
and gray suits and a lot of rehearsing of the opening and closing
statements. The team was nervous, after a second place finish at the
regional competition last year. The two weeks prior to the competition
on Saturday, the team had practiced every night and on Saturdays.
After the welcoming address, the Gray Stone Mock Trial team learned that
they would first play the part of the defense. Sam Hurley opened the
defenses side of the story up to the jury, by telling them that in the
trial, they will find that the prosecution will ask them to “jump off a
cliff” and believe that Tracy Palmer was the killer, when in fact, he
was innocent. Gray Stone hounded with prosecution with every objection
possible, showing the jury that they thoroughly knew the objections.
Even law students and practicing attorneys do not fully grapple the
objection, “hearsay”, something that each Gray Stone attorney takes
pride in knowing.
As the day went on, each mock trial team competed twice, each trial
lasting about two hours. Once those trials were finished, the officials
with the Wade Edwards Mock Trial Competition tallied up the results to
announce the two teams that would go against each other in the
championship round. The two teams were announced and Gray Stone was
aghast to hear that they were not in the final round. Each member of the
team was asking “How can this be possible?” and ‘We did so well in the
first two rounds.” It was apparent that the team members were upset.
Luckily, the team had Anna Morrison, an assistant D.A. in
After having only five minutes to set up and prepare to play the part of
the Defense, Gray Stone was ready. The parents and the coaches sat
anxiously in the audience as they watched Sam Hurley give the opening
statement again, foreshadowing that the prosecution would ask the jury
to jump off a cliff. When the trial began, it was clear that
After Raegan Perry, the lead attorney for the GS team gave the closing
argument, reinstating what Hurley said earlier, the trial ended. The GS
team immediately went to shake the hands of the
Katie Hopkins, a junior who played the part of the Detective and the
Defendant, admitted that she screamed. Danny Horner, a senior and a
witness, said that he was “so glad that we won, because it is my senior
year and last time ever doing this.” The team will be practicing twice
as hard this month to prepare for the state competition on the 9th
of May in the
The GS Mock Trail Team includes:
Attorneys:
Raegan Perry (senior)
Kaitlen Price (junior)
Sam Hurley (junior)
Witnesses:
Danny Horner (senior)
Katie Hopkins (junior)
Cailten Corbett (junior)
Eldon Zachek (freshman)
Alternates:
Kaleigh Featherstone (sophomore)
Rick Honeycutt (sophomore)
Coaches:
Mr. Scott Wilson
Ms. Anna Morrison
Sam Hurley and Raegan Perry each received individual awards for “Best Attorney” and Eldon Zachek received a “Best Witness” award.
Raegan Perry’s picture was taken for the
Asheville Citizen Times and
she was also quoted in the newspaper.
To see more pictures of the competition and to read
the article from the
Asheville Citizen Times
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