Captain Preston of the British troops was on the stand Saturday, being questioned about the killing of eight people in Boston.

High school students representing Carbondale, Murphysboro, Triad (in St. Jacob), Mt. Vernon and O’Fallon re-tried the Boston Massacre of 1770 this weekend at the SIU Lesar Law Building

The Boston Massacre occurred when Bostonians were angry at the presence of British troops and British taxes. The Bostonians were protesting when the British fired upon them, killing eight people.

Advertisement

The students went through courtroom procedures to either defend the British soldiers that fired upon the Boston crowd or defend the eight Bostonians that were killed in the shootings.

This was the High School Mock Trial program for the Southern Illinois region. In March, four of the five schools will advance to Springfield for a statewide competition. Students will re-try the same case.

Students spent months researching and studying the time period, the events that occurred and the reasons why the events occurred, Jen Scovitch, a participating student from Triad said.

I spent about three months reviewing the case, she said.

Students from these five high schools served as attorneys and witnesses for the trial. Area attorneys and judges evaluated the students’ efforts.

Craig Reeves, an attorney from Carbondale who evaluated the competition, said he was particularly impressed with the effort given and the research done by the students.

I think they’ve demonstrated they care enough about justice in the courtrooms to educate themselves, and I am very impressed, he said.

Advertisement*

The courtroom was complete with a judge, jury and bailiff. When the judge left the courtroom at the end of the trial, everyone was asked to rise.

When the judge returned, a verdict was not read. Instead, the judge gave positive and negative comments to the students on their courtroom performances.

Some student attorneys were told to leave their notes behind when they questioned witnesses because the notes slowed them down. Some students were reminded to speak slower, and some were commended on their performance.

The evaluation by the judge was the most helpful part of the program because it gave the students a chance to improve, Anna King, a participating student from Murphysboro, said.

This most definitely gives our team the chance to change our style if necessary, she said.

Suzanne Schmitz, the regional coordinator for the mock trial, spoke at the closing ceremony and awarded each school a certificate for participation.

Schmitz then announced the four teams that would be attending the state competition:Mt. Vernon, Triad, O’Fallon and Murphysboro.

When the winners were decided, King said she was very excited with her teams victory but said she was not surprised.

We are very happy that we have been given this chance to go to Springfield, she said. Our team worked very hard, but we have a lot more work to do and some rearranging also.