Highland 8th graders try Lizzie Borden in mock trial

By Molly Roberts
Posted 5/5/21

In 1893, Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the axe murders of her father and stepmother in Massachusetts, but in the Highland High School gym on April 29, 2021 she was found guilty.

The case was …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Highland 8th graders try Lizzie Borden in mock trial

Posted

In 1893, Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the axe murders of her father and stepmother in Massachusetts, but in the Highland High School gym on April 29, 2021 she was found guilty.

The case was presented, argued, and considered by Highland 8th graders as part of their language arts class with teacher Denise Roth.

“It’s a culmination of their writing, their speaking and their reading,” Roth said.

They had to comb through all the testimony on the website to get their story and their arguments. They had to really get into character and rehearse with their lawyer and know the case inside and out.”

The trial started with opening statements from lawyers on both the prosecution and defense teams, then the prosecution was able to call five witnesses in an attempt to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Lizzie Borden murdered her parents.

After a break for lunch, the defense was able to call their witnesses, including Lizzie herself, in an attempt to prove that Lizzie Borden was innocent.

A jury of middle school students from the same class, those who had argued a different case two days before, listened attentively to the trial and, in the end, found Lizzie guilty of the double murder.

Roth said she had taught mock trial at Cedar Rapids Prairie Middle School for 10 years, but the Highland students shaved 10 days off the needed prep time and outperformed every team she previously worked with.

“These kids have performed above and beyond with maturity and work ethic,” Roth said. “They know each other, and they collaborate really well together. They’ve learned that it’s OK to agree or disagree, they work together, and do a fantastic job.”

The students enjoyed the mock trial.

“I really liked it,” said Mya Castro. “I found it interesting how in the old trial, Lizzie was proven innocent when there was so much evidence to prove her guilty. I really liked working with my teammates. I think I learned more from mock trial than I would have [from writing a paper] because we got to act it out. We had to put ourselves in the lawyers’ positions and the witnesses had to learn about the characters’ backgrounds and stories.”

Adeline Krotz said she enjoyed the mock trial so much that she’s thinking about maybe pursuing a career in law.

“It makes me see if I want to be a lawyer when I’m older,” she said. “Mock trial gives you an overview of what you can get yourself into.”

Krotz said she learned differently from the mock trial, that presenting the case to a jury of her peers helped her learn more thoroughly and comprehensively.

“You really have to put your evidence and reasoning behind it and see how much you really know about the topic you’re talking about because you have people questioning you about it,” Krotz said.