Wilmington Friends School won the 26th annual Delaware High School Mock Trial Competition held at the Leonard L. Williams Justice Center (formerly the New Castle County Courthouse) in Wilmington.
The team from Wilmington Friends won out over student teams from 25 other public, private, parochial and charter schools throughout Delaware. In all, more than 250 students were involved in the competition held on Feb. 24 and Feb. 25, 2017 and was sponsored by the Delaware Law Related Education Center.
In addition, nearly 200 members of the Delaware Bench and Bar and other members of the legal community participated by serving as judges, bailiffs and support staff for the competition.
Students in each school spent two days arguing both sides of a simulated civil case involving an alleged fraud, presenting opening statements, closing arguments and questioning “witnesses.”
Two finalists emerged after four rounds of competition. In each round, students were judged on their knowledge of the law and ability to properly present their case.
Justice James T. Vaughn, Jr. of the Delaware Supreme Court presided over the final round, which for the second year in a row pitted Wilmington Friends School against Sussex Central High School. Also, for the second year in a row, Wilmington Friends ultimately took home top honors in the closely contested competition. Wilmington Friends will now represent Delaware in the National High School Mock Trial Championship in Hartford Connecticut May 11 – 13.
Archmere Academy, the Charter School of Wilmington and Cab Calloway School of the Arts earned third through fifth place respectively. Four students also received ceremonial gavels for exemplary performance as the “best witness” or “best attorney.”
At the banquet following the competition, DELREC presented its Pete Jones Award for outstanding service to the mock trial program to James Horn and Joan Horn. Finally, Oliva D’Dwyer a senior at Archmere Academy received a scholarship award of $500 provided by GE for winning the Mock Trial Competition Essay Contest.
