The Charter School of Wilmington's Mock Trial Team won the 2024 Delaware High School Mock Trial Competition on February 24.
Following five rounds of competition over two days, the defending state champions will represent Delaware at the National High School Mock Trial Championship which is being held in Wilmington, Delaware on May 3-4, 2024.
Congratulations to team captains Caroline Dooley, Claire McCann, and Aadhi Narayan as well as team members Tyresha Duncan, Luke Hu, Suhani Mehta, Suhani Nangia, Ailene Ni, Ashini Pachauri, Zuan Park, Miranda Ting, and Aryanna Toomer.
Gavel award winners included:
- Caroline Dooley- best attorney
- Tyresha Duncan- two-time gavel winner, best witness
- Aadhi Narayan- two-time gavel winner, best attorney, and best attorney in the championship round
- Ashini Pachauri- best attorney
- Aryanna Toomer- best witness
At the conclusion of the Delaware competition, CSW's novice team won the Delaware Way Award, which is given each year to the team that best exemplifies the ideals of mock trial – civility, justice, and fair play. The novice team members included Captains Julia Carroll and Alexis Kupchik, and team members Pamela Argudo-Rodriguez, Rujula Borkar, Selena Gao, Elaine Guo, Jeshen Kannan, Emma Li, Anjali Mahinth, Miya Sun, and Christopher Zhuang.
Novice team gavel award earners were:
- Pamela Argudo-Rodriguez- best witness
- Rujula Borkar-best attorney
- Alexis Kupchik- best attorney
The competition, organized by the Delaware Law-Related Education Center, Inc. (DELREC), was held at the Leonard L. Williams Justice Center in Wilmington February 23-24, 2024, followed by an award ceremony at the Chase Center on the Riverfront.
“We were thrilled to have 22 teams from across the state compete in this year’s competition. One thing we added this year was the chance for our novice teams to be paired with one another in the first round, which brought in 8 novice teams” said DELREC Executive Director Betsy Renzo.
This year's competition problem was a criminal case involving the death of an alleged loan shark, who was shot and pushed off the top of a parking garage during a meeting with a client who owed him money. Witness accounts of the crime, however, were contradictory. Teams took turns arguing each side of the case during the competition. For example, if in the first round, students argued the side of the prosecution, they then had to argue the side of the defense during the second round. Final verdicts are not rendered in each round – there was no finding of guilt or innocence – instead, each team was judged based on their presentation of the case and knowledge of the law.
Students presented opening statements, closing arguments, and questioned other students who played witnesses or experts in the case. All cases were held in actual courtrooms, followed proper legal procedure, and, in many cases, the presiding judge was a current or
retired member of the Delaware bench.
In all, more than 250 students and their teacher-coaches from public, private, and parochial high schools from around Delaware participated in the competition.
CSW team moderators and coaches are Mrs. Suzanne McCann and Ms. Adetola Magbagbeola, Department Chair of School Counseling. They were aided by Douglas McCann from Fish & Richardson P.C. as the lead attorney advisor for the teams. Fish attorneys, Kelly Del Dotto, Taylor Reeves and Grayson Sundermeir provided critical support in preparing the teams for trial and supporting them during the competition.