On March 15 and 16, Uni High’s Mock Trial team competed in its first-ever competition, the Illinois State Bar Association’s 42nd annual High School Mock Trial Invitational.
The competition was held at Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, Ill. and featured over 50 teams from across the state.
“It was Uni High’s first time ever competing in a Mock Trial competition,” says Jemina Feng, sophomore. “We all bonded together as a team and worked very hard on this case to do our best.”
Every year, the Illinois State Bar Association creates a fictional case for the High School Mock Trial Invitational.
This year’s case was the State of Illinois v. Peyton Reed, a “criminal case involving a defendant charged in connection with a fentanyl overdose at a party,” according to the Illinois State Bar Association website.
In a Mock Trial competition, each team has ten people, with five on prosecution and five on defense.
“The defense team goes against another school’s prosecution team, and our school’s defense team goes against another school’s prosecution team,” Feng says.
Uni’s prosecution team was Sarah Bijoy, freshman; Krishna Jaswal, sophomore; Oona Joyce, freshman; Mariam Mostafa, freshman; and Joyce Zheng, freshman. Bijoy and Joyce were witnesses in the case.
Uni’s defense team was Jemina Feng, sophomore; Deven Galvez, senior; Jameson LaFave, freshman; Linden Peters, sophomore; and Layla Zong, freshman.
The prosecution team competed on March 15, and the defense team competed on March 16.
Uni High Mock Trial won five out of six jurors in the jury pool, Feng says. Mostafa and Joyce were nominated for Outstanding Attorney and Outstanding Witness, respectively.
“I think we did a really good job and we prepared really well for this case,” says Mostafa.
Uni High did not end up placing in this year’s High School Mock Trial Invitational. However, Feng and Mostafa are looking forward to the competition for years to come.
“We have high hopes that we will do even better next year,” says Feng. “It’s very unusual [for] … an entire region [to] not have any Mock Trial competitions or teams at all. So, we’re excited to bring that to Champaign-Urbana and we’re excited to compete in the future as well.”
