Volunteer - Who, What, When, Where & Why

Tulsa County was well represented in the Oklahoma Bar Association High School Mock Trial competition held in the Bell Courtroom at the University of Oklahoma College of Law recently. Longtime rivals Jenks and Owasso met in the State Finals after also meeting in earlier rounds three times with their younger teams. The two senior teams battled in the Final Round judged by Supreme Court Justice Noma Gurich, federal judges Shonn Irwin, Janice Loyd and Charles Goodwin, Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals Judge David Lewis, and Canadian County retired judge Edward Cunningham who presided over the trial. Owasso emerged victorious to claim their fourth State Championship in five years. The competition involves teams of students taking on the roles of attorneys and defendants in a fictional case. The mock trials are presided over by a judge and attorneys in a courtroom setting, where individual and team performances are evaluated.

The case this year is a criminal trial stemming from a peaceful protest gone awry. The murder victim was one of the organizers of the intended peaceful protest, who died during a clash between groups that were exercising their constitutional rights as citizens of Oklahoma and the United States.

The Mock Trial Program is sponsored and funded by the Oklahoma Bar Foundation and the OBA