Today we woke up at 6:00 AM, and me, Karrina and Susan went to the gym to work out and get our day started. We then went to breakfast and they had a selection of French toast, waffles, fruits and doughnuts for us to choose from. At 8:30 the whole group met in the lobby and we had to take a 25 min walk to the Criminal law office. There we learned about the 4 elements of a crime:
1.) The prohibited act was committed,
2.) Criminal intent
3.) Concurrence of act and intent
4.) Causation

An interesting fact is that mock trials always choose names that are not gender specific so that the part of any character can be played by any gender.

We presented our skits (I was on the prosecuting side playing the part
of Zoey the Key-tech security guard eyewitness) and then the other groups critiqued our skit to improve it.

When we presented our interpretations of People vs. Stover, it really helped the students understand that the way you tell a story can persuade the audience to think a certain way.

As we sat in the criminal law office after reenacting out skits, 3 lawyers came and spoke to us.

Stephen M. (prosecuting attorney)
Peter G. (also a prosecuting attorney who actually wrote People vs.
Stover)
And Jeff Rubenson (also a prosecuting attorney)

Stephen mentioned, "You must not only think about your side, but it's also important to anticipate what the other side is going to say so you can be prepared to refute their response."

	Jeff said, "Every fact can cut 2 ways, such as the time of day could go for either the prosecution or defense. If it was 7 o'clock in difference months it could be light or dark. Little fact such as the time of day are very important too. " Peter explained, "If there is a problem to your side of the case, bring it out front

At 12 p.m. noon we were dismissed for lunch. They provided Mexican food for lunch and we ate in the court yard in front of the law offices until one o'clock.

The next guest speaker was ****** ****. He is a Resource Attorney. Dressed in a white striped suit, he rambled on for an hour about every type of vaccine known to man. (The longest hour of my life.)
(It would have been nice if he had provided us with duck tape so we could all scotch tape our eyelids open to prevent falling asleep. However, I didn't have duck tape so thanks to the VERY caffeinated bottle of coke I bought, I was prevented from falling dead asleep across my desk snoring and drooling on my copy of the U.S constitution.) After an infinitely long, highly caffeinated hour of counting and recounting the 78 strips on his white jacket, the pathetic version of Bill Nye the Science guy FINALLY summed up with discussing the U.S constitution and its various Articles.

I think this guest speaker, Mr. **** is very smart, and I do remember a lot of what he said, but I don't think that he is accustomed to providing information to high school students. Maybe speaking to so many kids scared him.

(If becoming a lawyer makes you this old, stressed and boring, forget
law... I'm becoming a Power Ranger! P.S. You'll never catch me wearing a white striped suit with 78 stripes.)

Paul L. was our next speaker. He is an entertainment lawyer who came to prepare us for our Mock Trial. He really liked us.

We were then split up into 4 groups and we picked our various roles to play in the actual mock trials. I chose to be a pretrial prosecuting attorney and it's my job to present the evidence for my side.
We then took a 25 min walk back to Hendricks Hall for dinner.

After dinner we went back in our conference room for a debrief activity in which we went over our day and discussed the pros and cons of it. We finished at 11:00pm. We went back up to our dorms and were in bed by 12. What a fun filled day, how could tomorrow possibly beat it?

Until then, we'll wait for Prince Charming to come but I think he took a wrong turn and is too stubborn to ask for directions.

<3 Brittany

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